PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online
THE ISSUE
House Bill 1947 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and House Republican leaders plan to bring the bill to the House floor next week, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The bill proposes to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations in future child sexual abuse cases and expand the length of time a victim has to bring a civil case. As the law now stands, a criminal case must be brought before a victim’s 50th birthday, and a civil case may be brought until a victim turns 30. If this bill passes, some victims will have until they turn 50 to press a civil case.
It’s progress, and we’re glad to see it.
But we’re still hoping that reform of the statutes of limitations in child sexual abuse cases goes further to help victims who suffered such abuse decades ago.
While we’ll be pleased to see the criminal statute of limitations eliminated in future cases of child sexual abuse, we were hoping that older victims of childhood sexual abuse would be given the opportunity to seek justice in civil court.
But House Bill 1947 would not apply to many past victims.
When, as we hope, this bill is signed, victims still under the age of 30 will be given until age 50 to press a civil suit. But if a victim is over 30 — by even one day — when the legislation is signed, they are excluded from being helped by this bill.
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