PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Tribune
March 8, 2019
By Joe Hernandez
New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill Thursday evening that would dramatically expand the state’s statute of limitations for sexual assault, allowing survivors to file civil lawsuits against their abusers for conduct that took place years or even decades earlier.
The up vote on a bill that had stalled in the Legislature in previous years came after hours of raw testimony from survivors about the abuse they had endured and the struggles of seeking justice with the state’s two-year limit.
This bill is focused on the statute of limitations on civil suits. In New Jersey, there is no criminal statute of limitations on sexual assault.
“They have been shut down by the court system, by this arbitrary deadline,” said Marci Hamilton, founder and CEO of Child USA. “It’s just a deadline.”
Under the plan, childhood victims of sexual abuse would have until age 55 to file a civil lawsuit — or within seven years of realizing that they were abused. Adult victims would have seven years from realizing their abuse.
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