BUFFALO, N.Y. — At 12:01 a.m. Saturday the window closes for people to file under New York State's Child Victims Act.
2 On Your Side is finding out many people who were on the fence or procrastinated are now jumping in to file for court action and compensation in these cases.
After various legal extensions of the court filing window due to the COVID pandemic and action by state lawmakers, the deadline is for those people who will come forward to say they were abused as victims by priests and others with the Catholic Church.
Attorney Steve Boyd told 2 On Your Side they have about 540 such cases for the Catholic Diocese in Buffalo and Rochester, with their bankruptcy stipulation also ending, so he does not feel there would be another window to file.
There are additional child victim lawsuits against school districts.
Boyd says that while some people may be on the fence about filing, he really feels a lawsuit is part of the healing process.
"We don't push them to move forward," he said. "They have to be ready. This has to be their decision. This is not kind of a pressure situation when they call us. I think the best reason why people come forward for these claims is to get some healing, and if we're not providing healing, then the rest of the lawsuit doesn't matter.
"So a lot of people are calling to find out what the process is like. Whether or not they should tell their family -- and we always encourage them to tell their family, because in almost all cases, they end up with a kind of love and support that they never expected."
Boyd says they're finding that the average age of a person filing such a claim is in their early 50s, because it can take decades of life to talk about abuse that happened when they were a child.
He also emphasizes that all information can be kept strictly confidential if that is what a claimant is seeking.
He and his colleague attorneys and other law firm staffers expect they could be busy right up until midnight Friday night, going into Saturday morning, and they can e-file a bare bones summary case with the court to meet the deadline.
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