Seizing on a legal opportunity that went into effect in New York today, a woman who alleges that Jeffrey Epstein raped her when she was a teenager filed a lawsuit against the late financier’s estate, his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell and three unnamed women who worked for him.
The Child Victims Act opens a year-long window, beginning Wednesday, for adults who were sexually abused as children to revive their claims. Such litigation would previously have been barred by a statute of limitations that prevented victims from suing after age 23. The law is expected to bring forward a flood of cases against institutions like the Boy Scouts, the state’s Catholic diocese and other religious organizations.
And now, it has been used by an alleged victim of Epstein in an attempt to seek justice.
Jennifer Freeman of the Marsh Law firm told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she and her colleagues represented a handful of Epstein’s alleged victims of sexual abuse, some of whom could stand to benefit from the new legal opportunity.
Her firm has not yet filed any lawsuits because Epstein’s death leaves the future of the case uncertain, but Freeman called the Child Victims Act “a second chance for restorative justice.”