Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse Need Broader Legal Protections

President Joe Biden signed the Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of 2022 in September. The law eliminated the statute of limitations—the period of time someone has to bring a lawsuit against their perpetrators for money damages—for minor victims of certain federal sexual abuse or trafficking offenses.

The law allows anyone who was abused or trafficked as a child to bring a lawsuit under federal law at any time in their life, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

The law is a huge step forward in protecting children from sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation. It reflects society’s deeper understanding of child abuse and increased awareness about delayed disclosure—the phenomenon of survivors of childhood abuse waiting many years before disclosing the abuse to anyone else. It mirrors the reform that many states have already pushed forward through state legislation.

By the time the act had even reached Biden’s desk, at least 15 states had already eliminated statutes of limitations for civil childhood abuse claims and 24 more states had passed laws creating revival windows, which gives survivors a time window to bring civil claims against abusers, even if those claims had otherwise expired.

But what about survivors who were adults at the time of their abuse?

The federal statute giving childhood abuse survivors the right to go into federal court to ask for compensation also applies to adult survivors. But adult survivors—whether they were 19 or 60 at the time of the crime—still have to bring their claims within 10 years.

And if they choose instead to bring civil claims under state law, most states still have statutes requiring them to sue somewhere between one and five years from the date they were abused.

Adult Survivors Also Need Time

What’s clear is that adult survivors of sexual abuse have fallen by the wayside in statute of limitations reform, but the complexities and realities of delayed disclosure are not unique to children. Adult survivors often take many years to come to terms with their abuse or to feel ready to report it, just as children do.

Adult survivors include those who have experienced domestic abuse or human trafficking, and who are often financially or emotionally dependent on their abusers for years.

They include those abused in the workplace, who fear losing their jobs and face complex power dynamics, as well as those who are abused by powerful individuals in society and fear public retaliation and publicity.

Giving survivors more time to seek justice is essential. The 2022 act was a bipartisan bill. It passed the US Senate with unanimous consent.

Just as giving children more time to come to terms with their abuse was not controversial, giving those who were abused after age 18 the same time should not be either.

It will still be the survivor’s burden to prove their case with evidence, and they will face the same evidentiary hurdles they always have. The only difference is that they will have more time to make the often-impossible decision between moving on and seeking justice through the intimidating and invasive civil litigation system.

States Are Acting

Some states have taken steps in the right direction. New York’s Adult Survivors Act—which mirrors the earlier Child Victims Act—is an example of progress. It created a one-year look-back window for adult sexual assault and abuse survivors to sue perpetrators regardless of when the abuse occurred.

In 2019, New York also extended its limitations period for future sexual abuse claims to 20 years, regardless of a survivor’s age at the time of the abuse. Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, and New Hampshire completely eliminated the statute of limitations for adult survivors to bring certain civil sexual abuse claims under state law.

Others should follow suit, just as a bipartisan group of legislators was ready and willing to do for childhood abuse survivors under federal law.

These expanded and renewed limitations periods, of course, have critics. Time and again, defendants argued that revival windows like New York’s Child Victims Act violate due process, citing fading memories and loss of documentary evidence over time.

But courts have found that these constitutional attacks on revival windows are without merit, and that revival windows serve to remedy an injustice—unreasonably short limitations periods—in light of an improved understanding of why it is often so difficult for survivors to come forward.

Also, a jury of ordinary citizens is capable of weighing issues like faded memories and lost evidence when deciding who to believe and whether a plaintiff has met the burden of proof with the evidence available.

After spending years advocating for survivors of all ages, we learned that every survivor is different, and that the number of years that it takes a survivor to muster the bravery to come forward has nothing to do with their credibility.

There are endless explanations why adult survivors take time to come forward. There is no explanation for restricting their ability to do so with arbitrarily short limitations periods.

It is time for the law to recognize adult survivors, both to protect the rights of those survivors and to hold as many perpetrators as possible accountable.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

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Sabina Mariella is an associate at Boies Schiller Flexner.

Sigrid McCawley is a managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner.