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ARTICLE · 30 MARCH 2016

Law Makes Civil Sex Assault Litigation Easier

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Civil sexual assault litiga¬tion will be less cum¬bersome and costly to plaintiffs now the Ontario gov¬ernment's has passed Bill 132, lawyers say.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Elizabeth Grace
Elizabeth Grace
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Previously published in Law Times - March 14, 2016.

Civil sexual assault litiga­tion will be less cum­bersome and costly to plaintiffs now the Ontario gov­ernment's has passed Bill 132, lawyers say.

The bill, which received Royal Assent March 8, means victims of sexual assault can launch a lawsuit any time after an alleged abuse, without having to prove they de­serve an extension of the usual two-year limitation.

The old system had complex exceptions to the general two-year limitation period for civil cases. It created a "rather com­plicated scheme" where lawyers had to look at a number of dif­ferent combined legal and fac­tual issues before clients could be heard, says Loretta Merritt, who practises plaintiff-side civil sexual assault litigation at Tor­kin Manes LLP.

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