It’s been just over a week since a one-year window closed allowing people to bring sexual assault claims under the Adult Survivors Act that would typically have been too old to file — but lawmakers, attorneys and advocates are considering ways to allow people who missed the deadline to file lawsuits.
New York’s statute of limitations for civil lawsuits alleging some sex offenses, including rape and first-degree aggravated sexual abuse, is now 20 years. State legislators extended the time limit from five years in 2019. Another recent law opened a “lookback” window that began last fall and gave sexual assault victims who didn’t pursue litigation within the legal time limit a second chance to do so.
The window closed last Thursday and state data shows more than 3,800 civil claims were filed in courts across New York under the act.
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who sponsored the legislation, said he is still speaking with other lawmakers, advocates and experts to assess what impact it had. And filing claims was just the beginning for the thousands of people who have filed civil claims and will likely spend months, if not years, litigating their cases.
Here are some possible next steps for survivors of sexual assault in New York:
Legal battles in court
For those who have already filed a civil claim through the Adult Survivors Act, this moment is like “mile three or four of a marathon,” said Adam P. Slater, an attorney with Slater Slater Schulman LLP, which filed about 1,800 sexual assault lawsuits under the state law.
Slater expects some cases will be resolved fairly quickly through settlement negotiations — with the extreme example being the agreement reached between musicians Sean “Diddy” Combs and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura just a day after Ventura sued the hip-hop artist. Other lawsuits could take years to wind their way through the courts, as both sides turn over evidence, interview witnesses and, in some cases, go to trial.
Many cases, Slater…
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