On Nov. 23, 2023, the one-year statute of limitations extension for claims based on sexual offenses provided by the New York’s Adult Survivors Act expired. By that time, more than 3,000 civil claims had been filed under the act. Those lawsuits include claims against celebrities (Bill Cosby, Axl Rose, Sean Combs), politicians (Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams), state agents (corrections officers, police officers, judges), doctors (Robert Hadden, Darius Paduch), business executives (Leon Black of Apollo Management, Mike Jeffries of Abercrombie) and companies of all kinds (art museums, healthcare systems, religious institutions, etc.). Even more claims continue to trickle in, based on tolling agreements between potential plaintiffs and defendants after their private negotiations did not result in a settlement.
While it is hard enough to defend a civil sexual assault claim under normal circumstances, as there are often no witnesses to the event and the timeline can be muddled by different individuals’ recollections, claims filed under the Adult Survivors Act come with extra difficulty—both to prosecute and defend—because many of these claims related to allegations that are years, if not decades, old.
