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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	April 16, 2013 04:10 PM
From:	Senator Andrew E. Dinniman
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault

I will soon introduce a bill to Amend Title 42 (Judicial Procedure) regarding civil litigation and childhood sexual abuse. For those who allege childhood sexual abuse but whose statute of limitations for civil actions has expired, my bill will provide a specifically defined and new, one-time two-year window during which civil lawsuits can be filed. Under current law, the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse expires at age 30. My bill is identical to legislation passed in Delaware and California, and I introduce it due to the many years or even decades of therapy and support it often takes for victims of childhood sex abuse to confront and process past incidents. Experts identify compelling reasons for “window” legislation including identifying previously unknown child predators to the public, the subsequent deterrence of future cases, and providing child sex abuse survivors their day in court. In California, more than 300 new perpetrators’ identities were released to the public during its one-year window for civil claims. To better protect the civil actions of future victims of childhood sexual abuse, my bill also increases the statute of limitations for victims from age 30 to age 50. To address false claims, my bill would have childhood sex-abuse victims, prior to initiating civil action, receive a certificate of merit from a licensed mental health practitioner showing reasonable cause for the filing of the civil action.

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