Kenney Shelton Liptak & Nowak LLP Litigation Alert
On May 24, 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Adult Survivors Act into law. Like the Child Victims Act, the Adult Survivors Act creates a one-year lookback window for the filing of claims by survivors of sexual assault, though this window applies only to those who were 18 or older at the time of the abuse. Individuals will now be permitted to sue abusers, their employers, or institutions associated with the abuser even if the statute of limitations on those claims already expired. This means any individual, company, or institution can now be sued for any sexual offense committed against an adult no matter how long ago the offense occurred. The one-year window will open on November 24, 2022.
For comparison, when the Child Victims Act window opened in 2019, it resulted in more than 10,000 lawsuits being filed. It is possible the Adult Survivors Act will generate even more litigation than the Child Victims Act. Over the past two years, Kenney Shelton Liptak & Nowak LLP has been heavily involved in the major Child Victims Act cases in New York, counseling our clients on the complex insurance and liability issues these cases present. We are uniquely positioned to manage the coming wave of litigation under the Adult Survivors Act and are here to assist you. As these claims are filed, we hope you will help us guide you in their handling. Please do not hesitate to contact Dirk C. Haarhoff at 716.853.3801, Ext. 401 or dchaarhoff@kslnlaw.com.