Left: Musical artist Marilyn Manson, whose legal name is Brian Hugh Warner, arrives for an appearance in Belknap Superior Court, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, in Laconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa). Center: FILE – Music mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, May 15, 2022. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File). Right: Former President Donald Trump, waits for the continuation of his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, POOL)
For many, the week of Nov. 24 marked Thanksgiving, holiday traveling to see loved ones, and a brief respite from the busy day-to-day responsibilities of careers, school, and more. Yet for countless people across New York, that date is significant for an entirely other reason: the New York Adult Survivors Act — a state law implemented in November 2022 that allowed a one-year window for adult survivors of sexual violence to sue their alleged attackers — expired.
The act, which was signed in New York in May 2022 and went into effect that November, was created to allow survivors of sexual assault that occurred when they were over the age of 18 to sue, regardless of when the abuse occurred. The act has resulted in over 2,500 suits filed as of last week, and many of them against high-profile figures, including Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, rocker Marilyn Manson, and even the May 2023 civil verdict against former President Donald Trump.
The act came as part of a slew of legislation implemented in the years following the #MeToo movement, affording survivors a new opportunity to come forward with their claims. The 2019 Child Victims Act, for example, created a one-year window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file claims regardless of how long ago the acts occurred, as well as the 20-year extension of the statute of limitations in New York for adults filing civil lawsuits for sex crimes moving forward. Many have applauded the act for creating room for survivors to pursue justice, and New York courts have seen a significant uptick in the amount of civil cases filed within this past year regarding claims of sexual violence.
Yet with the act now expired, many are left with more questions, including examining just how much of an impact the act has had, what the likelihood is of extending it, and what will happen to other victims who have not yet have a chance to have their day in court.
Aim of the act: The reasoning behind this new legislation
The New York Adult Survivors Act is one of the rare extensions granted for retroactive sexual abuse claims, and was enacted with the understanding many people in the legal community now have in these types of cases.
Since the #MeToo movement emerged in 2017, our society has advanced by leaps and bounds in terms of understanding survivors of acts of sexual violence and the difficulties that prevent them from reporting or publicly discussing the crimes in great detail. Research has shown that victims of sexual abuse are forced to wrestle with complex emotions that often hinder their ability to immediately come forward with their claims, including shame, guilt, fear, and more. In the years since 2017 and in the wake of #MeToo, the amount of sexual assault cases that were reported significantly rose, which helped to pave the pathway to creating legislation to afford survivors and women in general greater protection, and reduced the fear or inability that people sometimes feel when going public with these types of claims.
By May 2022, it was announced the act would be implemented, for a number of reasons. First, by enabling this new legislation, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated she hoped the one-year window would allow survivors to “hold their abusers accountable,” and that it would play a part in eradicating sexual assault for good. Secondly, the act has prompted institutions, companies, and brands to take more responsibility regarding abuse that occurs under their watch, as a good amount of sexual assault cases that were filed in this past year related to conduct and actions occurring in the workplace. Finally, many are hoping that implementing this act will set a precedent and make pursuing similar legislations more tenable.
One year later: What impact has the act had?
In the year since the Act was first put into effect, one of the greatest forms of impact is the more than 2,500 suits that have been filed that otherwise would not have been possible if not for this legislation. Some of these suits were filed against the plaintiff’s employers, institutions such as hospitals and medical companies, and even government agencies like state prisons and local jail systems.
Many survivors have praised the chance the Act has given them personally, but also stressed how it has prompted employers to take internal complaints of sexual or gender-based violence more seriously and to enact measures to prevent such claims from happening in the future. Specifically, just last month, a complaint was filed in New York State Supreme Court, after over 300 patients of former gynecologist Robert Hadden accused him of sexual abuse. The act permitted the survivors to sue not just Hadden, but his employer Columbia University Irving Medical Center as well. Given that this window allows plaintiffs to directly sue employers or entities, survivors are hoping that places of employment will now begin to take these types of claims more seriously now that they know they could be directly implicated.
Finally, those in the legal and legislative communities are cognizant of the long-term impact the act will have – specifically, changing the archaic ways the system has viewed the statute of limitations and windows of time allowing victims to come forward. On this, New York Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal stated: “We are changing a dynamic, the antiquated way we view statutes of limitations, and we’ve gained new knowledge through the Child Victims Act and also the #MeToo movement about how women — for the most part, women — were silenced, harassed, intimidated.”
Moving forward
The legal and lobbying communities would agree that the act has already begun to cause great effects in terms of granting survivors a chance to pursue justice and change the way the system views crimes of sexual abuse, yet with such positive changes, many are hoping that the act was not just a one-time extension. Both of the lawmakers who sponsored the act — Rosenthal and state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal — have publicly supported extending the window into an additional year for next session. Hoylman-Sigal stated he is in early talks with lawmakers about extending the act when he reports to Albany in January 2024.
While numerous plaintiffs have utilized the one-year window and filed suits, there are still many who still want to pursue justice but ran out of time to decide whether to file within this year. By enabling another extension, lawmakers would be granting these survivors their day in court too, but it would create an even larger ripple effect: the more survivors come forward and file their claims, the more courage, support, and strength survivors gain when deciding what they want to do.
Either way, many can agree that the New York Adult Survivors Act has created a world of good for the legal community and survivors all across the world, and allowing it to be extended would only continue that admirable work.
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