Attorney Ray Boucher talks about new Assembly Bill 218

December 26, 2019

California is bracing for what could be an avalanche of lawsuits involving allegations of child sex assaults. A new law signed by Governor Newsom allows victims more time to file lawsuits. Assembly Bill 218 will take effect on January 1st and could affect victims in many walks of life, from child athletes to school children to boy scouts and young Catholics.

Host: California Assembly Bill 218 will take effect on January 1st, and could affect victims in many walks of life, from child athletes, to school children, to Boy Scouts, and young Catholics. Attorney Ray Boucher is here now to tell us more about that. Welcome, and thanks for dropping by this afternoon, we really appreciate it. What exactly does Assembly Bill 218 do?

Ray Boucher: It does a lot of things, but the three primary things are:

1. Revives the statute, what we call opens the statue for people who were sexually abused as minors to bring a lawsuit, if their time had already passed, so that’s one of the most important things because this is a three-year window;
2. The second is it expands the time within which people can bring a case. So, up until now, unless you were 26 or younger, you couldn’t bring a lawsuit no matter when you determined that the sexual abuse had caused an impact upon you as an adult. Now, you have until the age of 40.
3. The third thing is that it expands what we call sexual abuse. It’s now sexual assault and includes other types of conduct; it is a broader statute than it used to be.

Host: This plays in part to anyone who is at fault. So that can be a school it could be a church, it could be a talent agency, right?

Ray Boucher: Right, so that’s one of the other things that is really critical about this statute: it allows you to bring cases against school districts, which in the past really was a unique circumstance not allowed in the previous revival statute. There is a tremendous amount of sexual abuse within the Hollywood industry, within schools, within boy scouts and other types of organizations that cater to children, and then, obviously the Catholic Church.

Host: And some of the wording has changed from abuse to assault. Why?

Ray Boucher: You know, this is a crime. Many of these cases that are ten years old are cold cases. This is criminal conduct, and so I think the main aspect of the statute was to broaden the language to ensure that people understand that this is sexual assault, this is a criminal conduct against a minor. It is serious.

Host: Let’s talk about the Catholic Church. How are they responding to this law?

Ray Boucher: So far, they have established a compensation fund that we don’t think is adequate to take care of victims of sexual abuse. Right now, they are sitting back trying to think and understand how many cases are going to be filed. We know that there are thousands and thousands of victims of clergy sexual abuse in California alone that have never brought forth their claims, because it is difficult. It takes a tremendous amount of courage for an adult to come forward, who has been beaten as a young child into believing that they had to suffer in silence and to be silent to come forward and ultimately say, “I was abused.”

Host: So, what exactly happened January 1st? I know one of your biggest challenges is getting the word out because people just don’t know, especially with the passage of time, that they can still get justice.

Ray Boucher: Yes, and that is one of the most critical things. People don’t understand and it takes a tremendous amount of courage even when they hear it. It also takes the understanding that they are not there alone. That for each victim that comes forward and finds the courage to do so, they open up the opportunity for so many others who were sexually abused by that same perpetrator to do the same thing.

Host: And you’re making sure they’re not alone, so thank you so much for the work you’re doing. Again, it’s going into effect on January 1st, so we’ll see what happens then, and how many cases are filed.