PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania legislature is once again considering bills that would open a window for victims of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers if the statutes of limitations have expired. Concerns from both sides of the issue were presented Monday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
Pennsylvania changed its law in 2019 to allow current victims of child sexual abuse until their 55th birthday to sue their abusers.
But the legislature has struggled for more than a decade over current survivors who are outside the statute of limitations.
Cary Silverman, testifying on behalf of the American Tort Reform Association, says a window to allow victims outside the statute of limitations could force an organization to defend a case from decades ago.
“Not only will they not know anything about it, they might have been born at the time,” Silverman said. “The perpetrator may be dead, a supervisor who was 40 years old at the time would be 90 years old today,” Silverman said.
But University of Pennsylvania professor and Child USA founder and CEO Marcy Hamilton says certain powerful groups are fighting the legislation because they know how many victims there actually are.
“Because the statute of limitations didn't give them justice way back in the day, because we didn't have prevention like we should have for them, because we protected adults and we let the children suffer,” Hamilton said.
The House Judiciary Committee will consider two bills, one that simply changes the law and another that proposes a Constitutional amendment. A vote is scheduled for this week.