What is the Adult Survivors Act (ASA)?
Modeled after New York’s Child Victims Act, the ASA temporarily revives all expired civil claims of sex abuse committed against those who were 18 or older when the abuse took place. The ASA “lookback window” opened on November 24, 2022, for a period of one year.
The ASA could apply to you if:
You were sexually assaulted in New York when you were aged 18 or older
You are interested in pursuing a civil lawsuit against the offender or those that enabled them
What does ‘sexual assault’ mean? Does the Adult Survivors Act cover what happened to me?
We would need to learn more about the facts of your case before we can give you a definitive answer about your unique situation. The ASA covers sexual offenses as defined in Article 130 of the NY penal code (a penal code is a set of statutes that concern criminal offenses), plus Incest as defined in section 255.26 or 255.27.
What does the New York Adult Survivors Act cover?
It includes a wide range of offenses – some of which may surprise you:
squeezing, grabbing, pinching, or touching the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing the victim, or for the purpose of gratifying the offender’s sexual desire
administering a prescription substance in order to sexually assault someone (includes committing or attempting to commit)
engaging in oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct with another person without their consent
engaging in sexual intercourse with another person without their consent
engaging in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent
subjecting another person to sexual contact without their consent; sexual contact includes touching of the offender by the victim, as well as the touching of the victim by the offender, whether directly or through clothing
ejaculating on any part of a victim, clothed or unclothed, without their consent
subjecting another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion (“Forcible compulsion” means to compel by either use of physical force; or a threat, express or implied, which places a person in fear of immediate death or physical injury to himself, herself or another person, or in fear that he, she or another person will immediately be kidnapped)
inserting an object or finger in the vagina, urethra, penis, rectum or anus of another person when they do not consent or are incapable of consent
sexual intercourse or sexual contact when a victim is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act
rape or criminal sexual act against a person the offender knows to be related to him or her, whether through marriage or not, as a descendant, brother or sister of either the whole or half blood, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece (incest)
