“Thanks to the 2024 legislature, Hawai‘i is taking an important step toward recognizing the unique challenges facing survivors of sex abuse, helping them on the long road to recovery and justice,” Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman’s Victoria Chang writes in a Hawaii Star-Advertiser guest commentary this week regarding the passage of Senate Bill 2601.
Signed into law by Gov. Josh Green earlier this month, SB 2601 prioritizes the victim. Unlike criminal laws focusing on punishing perpetrators, civil lawsuits hold businesses and institutions accountable for failing to protect children. The new law acknowledges that most survivors do not report their abuse, and those who do often delay reporting by an average of 20 years.
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“The goal is to make the victim ‘whole,’ and provide monetary damages to assist with paying for therapy, time off work, time to look for work, schooling — all of which are often delayed while a victim regroups and recovers from the trauma inflicted by sexual abuse. The ability for victims to obtain monetary damages can be critically important as victims navigate the long road to recovery,” she writes.
Under the new law — which applies to incidents that occur after July 1, 2024 — survivors can file a civil lawsuit up to 32 years after their 18th birthday or up to five years after discovering a psychological illness was caused by abuse. Under the previous statute, a victim of childhood sexual abuse who delayed disclosure was often time-barred from bringing a civil claim against the perpetrator or entity due to expiration of the statute of limitations.
“We see more examples of schools and churches being held accountable for sexual abuse committed against children in their care. The number of victims who have emerged to talk about their experiences provides strength and hope to others who have or may experience the same,” she writes.
“In addition to giving strength and power to the survivors of sexual abuse, the change in the law is a wake-up call to legal entities that they cannot escape responsibility for anyone they hire or any child in their care. The new law makes these entities responsible for implementing policies, procedures, and practices to prevent child sexual abuse. The change in the law makes the legal entity responsible for understanding the science and psychology behind child sexual abuse and forces that entity to change the way victims are treated and disclosures are handled. Creating an environment that fosters disclosure rather than one that re-victimizes the survivor is now required, and just maybe, this will mark the end to this far too common pattern of delayed disclosure.”
Click here to read the guest commentary in the Hawaii Star-Advertiser.
