Queensland Government Opens Door to Removal of Sex Abuse Legal Time Limits

By Jorge Branco
Brisbane Times
May 11, 2016

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-government-opens-door-to-removal-of-sex-abuse-legal-time-limits-20160511-gosa6r.html

Early moves toward scrapping a time limit that prevents thousands of child sex abuse victims suing for damages have been welcomed by an organisation that regularly sees the "huge" impact the laws have.

The Queensland government has promised to convene a forum to develop the state's response to the findings of the child sex abuse Royal Commission.

The Queensland government has promised to look at the state's response to the findings of the child sex abuse inquiry. Photo: Supplied

Key among those was a call for all states and territories to remove any time limits on civil litigation claims from sex abuse survivors, which it labelled a "significant, sometimes insurmountable barrier".

The statute of limitations in Queensland expires three years after a victim turns 18 but the Royal Commission found it takes the average survivor 22 years to disclose their abuse.

New South Wales scrapped the time limit earlier this month and Victoria did the same last year.

On Wednesday, Queensland Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman announced the government would hold a forum to address the findings "soon".

She also promised "common guiding principles" setting out "a compassionate and consistent approach to civil litigation brought against the state by claimants who were sexually abused as children."

"We acknowledge this is just the first step in removing barriers to justice to survivors of child sexual abuse," she said in a statement.

"We are absolutely committed to listening to and working with survivors and stakeholder organisations."

The statement came after an open forum on the issue held in Parliament House Wednesday night, where Ms Fentiman told the crowd the government was "thoroughly considering the issues of both redress and civil litigation."

Independent legal service Knowmore has helped more than 4500 clients involved with the Royal Commission across the country, according to its executive director, Warren Strange.

He welcomed the moves but said more needed to be done to bring a change to legislation, as the impact on survivors was often "huge".

"People will often speak of being re-traumatised when they seek to go through the existing legal processes," he said.

"It's devastating for people who want to seek justice and are told that a large part of their possible rights have expired and are told that the law required them to act on those rights at a time when because of the abuse that they suffered they simply were unable to do so."

The Royal Commission estimated there were almost 8500 survivors eligible for redress in Queensland alone but it was not expected they would all seek civil litigation.

Queensland Law Society welcomed the statement as a "very good first step" but urged the government to take the extra step of changing legislation.