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Priest Sex Abuse Lawyer
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Pennsylvania Church Sexual Assault Lawyer - Pennsylvania Priest Sexual Assault Lawyer Cases Settlements PA
If you were sexually abused as a child by a priest, deacon or any other member of the Catholic Church, you are not alone. We are here to help you. Please fill out our confidential online contact form or call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 and a Pennsylvania Sexual Abuse Lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your possible case. Help is available nationwide. There is no cost to investigate and there are no legal fees unless you receive financial compensation. Making the call is sometimes the hardest step, but it is often a necessary step on the road to healing. Church Sexual Assault Lawyer Pennsylvania
Reasons to call
- Hold the church and priests accountable
- Prevent this from happening to someone else
- Help with the road to recovery – settlement money can provide financial security for you. It can also help pay for therapy, rehabilitation, and medical treatment
Please call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our confidential contact form and a lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your case. Pennsylvania Church Sexual Assault Lawyer
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Church Sexual Assault Lawyer Pennsylvania
Serious efforts are underway to change the Pennsylvania Statute of Limitations for Priest Sexual Abuse, and for good reason. After the explosive Grand Jury Report came out in 2018, the general public is up in arms.
What is statute of limitations reform
Statutes of limitations have been a part of law codes since ancient Athens. They have a number of justifications. Lawmakers reason that an accuser who has a genuine grievance should pursue it promptly and not wait 5, 10 or 20 years. Evidence is lost over the years, making it more difficult to prove what happened. And for less severe crimes, persecuting a law-abiding person for a crime committed years ago may be more cruel than helpful.
Many of these rationales do not apply to sexual assault, especially child sexual assault. People who were abused often delay reporting the crime for long periods of time because they blame themselves, feel ashamed, or do not know how to process what happened. It’s common for abuse victims to speak up only in adulthood, when they are able to look objectively at what happened. In fact, the average age to disclose is 52. Some people may even recover memories of abuse that were buried due to selective amnesia.
Church Sexual Assault Lawyer Pennsylvania
And the seriousness of the crime means that even people who committed the offense decades ago should be brought to justice. Nevertheless, many US states still have statues of limitations in place for child sexual abuse. They may be set up based on the number of years since the assault happened (ranging from 3 to 30), or the age of the accuser (in California, charges can be brought against someone who commits a sexual offense against a minor only until the accuser turns 28). They may also specify a certain number of years after the accuser reaches adulthood (in DC, 15 years after reaching the age of majority). These can apply to both criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits.
Groups such as The Association for Survivors of Abuse have called for doing away with this patchwork of rules and no longer subjecting victims to arbitrary deadlines. SOL reform is already underway. Since 2002, 38 states and DC have amended their rules to give victims more time to come forward. In over 30 states, some sex crimes can now be prosecuted no matter how long ago they occurred.
Church Sexual Assault Lawsuit Pennsylvania
Yet no state has completely done away with SOLs for all forms of sexual abuse prosecutions and lawsuits, a necessity if all past victims are to get justice. In DC, which now allows 15 years, a victim’s claim may be too old, while under the more restrictive old law they may also have missed their window to press charges during the 15 years after the assault. In states where SOLs still exist, movements are currently afoot driven by advocacy groups to do away with them.
As this movement continues to make progress, more victims will find justice, and loopholes that allow abusers to evade justice will be closed.
Church Sexual Assault Lawyer Pennsylvania