Nearly 1,100 civil suits alleging sexual abuse have been filed in Long Island courts under a law that allowed victims to sue for crimes committed decades earlier, according to state records.
The two-year lookback window to file a claim under New York State’s Child Victims Act ended Friday with 10,857 cases filed statewide, according to records, which were released Tuesday.
“In a way it’s a wonderful number because it means so many people came forward,” said Jennifer Freeman, senior counsel at the Manhattan-based Marsh Law Firm, which filed nearly 500 cases under the Act that are currently pending in state court. “But in a way it’s so sad because so many people had to come forward. I feel very conflicted about these numbers.”