PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER
HARRISBURG – A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to remove the most controversial provision of a bill that would let child sex-abuse victims sue their attackers.
By a near unanimous vote, the Judiciary Committee passed an amendment that bars the law from being applied retroactively, a move that would have enabled lawsuits by victims who were abused as far back as the 1970s.
Opponents have complained the measure would stir a flood of crippling lawsuits against the Catholic Church and other institutions.
Still intact is the plan to extend the civil statute of limitations for future victims, giving them until age 50, rather than 30, as the law now allows. The House bill, which included the retroactivity provision, overwhelmingly passed that chamber in April and Gov. Wolf had said he would sign it.
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