On June 28, 2024, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law A6138, which clarifies that individuals bringing untimely or inadequately filed lawsuits for sexual offenses revived by the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) under three other laws are not required to file a notice of claim or notice of intention to file a claim beforehand when such suits are brought against the Government. 

While the ASA provided that sexual offenses claims can be revived even if the statute of limitations period passed or a notice of claim went unfiled, the ASA did not directly amend the specific laws such revived suits are brought under to eliminate these procedural hurdles. 

The Bill clarifies that individuals bringing procedurally flawed claims revived by the ASA under the Court of Claims Act, General Municipal Law, and Education Law, specifically, are not required to file a notice of claim or intention to file a notice of claim prior.

This clarification went into effect immediately and applies to lawsuits either pending on or brought after June 28, 2024.

The Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act passed the House on March 30, 2022 and now makes its way to the senate. 

If passed, the Act will require airlines, railroads, vessels, buses, and transit entities (e.g., Uber / Lyft) to establish "a formal policy with respect to transportation sexual assault or harassment incidents" together with appropriate trainings. 

It is specifically designed to notice, warn, prevent, and combat sexual assault and harassment by the public and staff making transportation safe for all involved. 

The Act establishes civil penalties against harassers starting at $35,000. 

Shouldn't it be safe to travel and shouldn't it be safe to work in transit?

Victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault can now proceed in a class action, with other victims, and can also litigate their case in court, individually or collectively, regardless of having previously executed an arbitration agreement. 

This is really important because powerful companies have traditionally forced their employees and independent contractors to sign predispute joint-action waivers, which prevent victims from bringing joint, class, or collective actions against those companies for sexual harassment and sexual assault. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 invalidated such waivers. Now, victims can work collectively and take on powerful companies in court in the same way that a union equalizes employee bargaining power at the proverbial negotiating table.

The Act also invalidates mandatory arbitration agreements, which heavily favor companies who regularly pay the same arbitrators, know their rules, have relationships, and win a vast majority of the time.

To learn more about this new law, here is an audio recording of my appearance on The Jay Oliver Show explaining the importance of the law right after it was passed by the Senate. To be clear, the recording misstates the law's effectiveness to past claims. The law only applies to claims that "arise[] or accrue[] on or after the date of enactment," which was March 2, 2022.