Key part of law to help child sex abuse survivors to expire
ATLANTA — After suffering through sexual abuse for a decade starting when she was 5, a Georgia woman said she was too emotionally wrecked to sue her alleged abuser until it was too late — state law says victims must file lawsuits seeking damages before they turn 23.
She got another chance when legislators in 2015 passed the Hidden Predator Act, which provided a two-year window during which victims older than that could sue their alleged abusers.
Now 28, the woman, identified in court documents only as H.M., filed a suit against her abuser in March. The case is in progress.
Other survivors may not get the same chance: The two-year window opened by the Hidden Predator Act, which went into effect July 1, 2015, expires Saturday, at which point Georgia will return to being one of the “worst five states in the country” for providing recourse for victims of childhood sex abuse, along with Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi and New York, said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and CEO of Child USA.