Category: News

Jeff Dion, the CEO of the Zero Abuse Project, led a presentation detailing several facts about the new Child Victims Act. He spoke about how the culture of negligence within some institutions has to end and should be replaced by one of disclosure.

“By opening a ‘window to justice’ and allowing survivors whose cases were previously barred by [statutes of limitations] to be heard in court, important information can be exposed that can help create safer, more informed communities.”

The legislation allows child victims to sue up until they turn 55 or within seven years of their first realization that the abuse caused them harm. The current statute of limitations is age 20 or two years after first realizing the abuse caused harm.

The Boy Scouts have kept files going back decades showing that nearly 8,000 volunteers have been excluded from the organization because they had been accused of sexually abusing children, according to a review by an expert on child sexual abuse.

Two years ago, Maryland lawmakers made it easier for adults sexually abused as children to sue institutions that harbored predators. They may have also irreversibly granted some immunity to the Catholic Church. A provision tucked into a 2017 law now stands in the way of Maryland joining a nationwide effort to bring justice to victims who come to terms with childhood abuse when they reach middle age and, for decades, have had no recourse in civil courts.