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As NJ Eases Sex Abuse Limits, Wave of Lawsuits Expected

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By Andy B. Mayfair

Experts are looking for more sex abuse cases coming down the line in New Jersey thanks to a law that just went into effect.

The law, which became effective today, makes it easier for victims to bring suit for the abuse they have suffered. It “allows child victims to sue until they turn 55, or within seven years of their first realization that the abuse caused them harm. The limit was two years before the new law. Adult victims also have seven years from the discovery of the abuse, and victims who were previously barred by the statute of limitations have a two-year window to file claims,” according to the Associated Press.

Several states have rejiggered criminal and civil statutes of limitations on sex abuse over the last 10 or 15 years, “but just a handful including California, Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota have created so-called lookback windows for lawsuits. New York enacted a bill earlier this year that creates a window similar to the one in New Jersey,” reported AP. “New Jersey’s push for expanding the statute of limitations gained momentum from last year’s release of a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that catalogued the experiences of thousands of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the church’s cover-up of the scandal.”

Next door, in Philadelphia, many have been waiting for the law to kick into effect. “Already the Catholic Church is girding for the impact. Over the last year, New Jersey’s bishops have sold off property, bolstered their insurance policies, and encouraged victims to accept financial settlements from specially launched compensation funds in anticipation of the law,” noted the Philadelphia Inquirer. “In Pennsylvania — where efforts to pass a similar “window” bill have ignited a contentious battle in Harrisburg — the state’s eight Catholic dioceses fear they could become vulnerable over claims involving priests who abused children on trips to the Jersey Shore.”

It has, reported law.com, been “slightly less than a year since the Boy Scouts of America announced it was considering filing for bankruptcy to deal with a spate of sex abuse claims, and in that time 40 states have introduced bills aiming to expand the statute of limitations for bringing lawsuits alleging just this type of abuse. Now, with several of these laws either having been recently enacted, or set to go into effect in the coming weeks, hundreds of new lawsuits are gearing up to be filed against the organization before the end of the year.”

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