NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON — A bill to give victims of childhood sexual abuse unlimited time to file suit against their abusers and the institutions harbored them stalled in the state Senate today, after its sponsor couldn’t round up enough votes to pass it.
The bill (S1651) would lift the statute of limitations for civil suits for sexual abuse for both the perpetrators themselves and institutions that committed “any negligent act that results in the commission of sexual assault, the commission of any other crime of a sexual nature or sexual abuse.”
State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), its sponsor, said he wasn’t sure the votes were there to pass it today in part because four of the Senate’s 24 Democrats were absent. He plans to try again in September.
Under current law, victims have two years to file suit from the point they realized the abuse damaged them.
Mark Crawford director of the New Jersey Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), has been pushing for the legislation.
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