Starting yesterday, survivors of child sexual abuse have one year in New York state to file suit against their alleged abusers and against institutions such as churches and schools that protected those abusers, the Washington Post reported. The one-year window will permit a flood of cases that were previously disallowed in the state because of a strict statute of limitations that prevented victims from suing after they turned 23. The state’s eight Catholic dioceses are the likely target of many of the suits that will be filed Wednesday and throughout the one-year window, but far from the only institution. The Boy Scouts expect a large number of lawsuits. Schools, Jewish groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other churches and youth organizations also are likely to face suits that couldn’t be brought before because the victims kept their abuse secret for too long to bring a case under state law.
