The Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts held a public hearing Thursday to discuss a bill that would allow people to bring civil suits against perpetrators for gender-based harm and extend the statute of limitations to seven years.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, defines gender-based harm as a violent or non-consensual sexual act that causes the victim physical injury, emotional distress or loss of property.
The bill would allow a victim to bring forth a suit within seven years of the act. The current statute of limitations on an allegation such as battery or assault is three years.
Andy Cook, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council, said the group has several concerns about the bill, including unclear language and the long statute of limitations.
“The witness’s memories can fade, evidence can become stale after awhile,” Cook said. “On one hand, you want to protect victims, but there should be a way to protect defendants as well against these claims.”
According to the council’s opposition statement to the Assembly Committee on Corrections and Courts, the longer statute could cause hard to prove accusations and infringe upon the rights of defendants.
The original version of the bill also stipulated someone could bring forth a suit because of an act committed, at least in part, based on the victim’s gender, which the council thought was too vaguely worded.
“What really is an act?” Cook said. “It could just be words, something an employee said to another person that causes emotional harm and all the sudden they can bring a lawsuit that has nothing to do with violence.”
Cook added that people already have the ability to bring forth lawsuits for assault, battery or emotional distress, including instances where attacks have been motivated by gender. The council does not believe the proposed law is necessary and could actually unfairly shift fees to defendants if they are wrongly accused, Cook said.
According to Cook, the council has spoken with Berceau about their concerns. and she has made several amendments to the bill, including replacing the word “act” with “violent act.”
Tera Meerkins, chair of Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, said PAVE has no official stance on the bill, but she believes it has the potential to be useful recourse for victims.
“Right now victims are burdened with the costs for their mental and physical health. This could help them with that,” Meerkins said. “This would make it so that it’s not the victim that has the burden of all the costs, but rather the perpetrator.”
Meerkins added she believes the longer statute of limitations is a beneficial thing for victims because they might not have had the resources to come forward within the first three years of their assault.
“It gets difficult the more specific you get with language, it always leaves some people out,” Meerkins said. “I think as long as it’s inclusive then it’s a positive thing.”
