Civil Sex Assault Claims

Suing a Public Entity in New York: The 90-Day Deadline

If the organization involved in your assault was a public one, the timetable changes completely, and it changes in a direction that leaves very little room. A public hospital, a public university, a city or county agency, a public school district, a transit or housing authority: where any of these may share responsibility, New York requires a formal written notice to be served within ninety days, long before a case is filed. Ninety days from the assault, not from the day you felt able to talk about it. Miss it and the claim can be lost outright, whatever its merits. There is a second deadline behind it, and there is an exemption in the law that helps child victims but that does not extend to adults. This post is deliberately short, because if a public body may be involved in your situation the only useful action is to speak to a lawyer immediately rather than to finish reading and think it over.

Which organizations count as public

More than people expect. The category is not limited to a city or a state agency, and the name over the door is not a reliable guide.

Cities, counties, towns and villages, and their agencies
Public school districts, and public colleges and universities
Public hospitals and municipal health systems
Transit, housing and port authorities and similar bodies
Police departments, corrections facilities and other public services

Some organizations are harder to place. A clinic may be publicly run or privately operated. A residential facility may hold a public contract without being a public body. A university may be public in one part and private in another. If you are unsure what kind of organization you are dealing with, treat it as urgent and ask us, because the answer decides which clock you are on.

The ninety-day notice

Before a case against a public body can proceed in New York, a sworn written notice of the claim generally has to be served on the right entity within ninety days. It is a formal document with required contents, served in a required way, on a body that has to be correctly identified.

Two things about that period surprise survivors. It runs from when the claim arises rather than from when you were ready. And it is short enough that the ordinary process of deciding whether to come forward can consume it entirely.

Please do not measure this ninety days yourself. Working out the date it started, and which entity has to be served, is not a calculation to make from a web page. If a public organization may be involved, contact us now and let us confirm the position.

The second deadline behind it

Serving the notice preserves the claim. It does not end the timetable. A case against a public body in New York generally has to be commenced within one year and ninety days.

That is far shorter than the periods that apply to many other defendants, and it can be shorter than the period that would apply to the very same conduct if the organization happened to be private. Two survivors with similar experiences can face entirely different timetables because of who ran the building.

The exemption that does not reach adults

New York removed the notice requirement for claims arising from childhood sexual abuse. That change is real and it has mattered to many survivors. It is also expressly limited to people who were under eighteen at the time.

There is no equivalent exemption for adult victims. If you were an adult when you were assaulted, the ninety-day notice applies to you in full. This is one of the sharpest differences between New York and New Jersey practice, because New Jersey no longer requires that notice in sexual abuse cases at all. The same facts, a short distance apart, produce very different obligations.

If the ninety days have already passed

Speak to a lawyer anyway, and quickly.

There is a route by which a court can be asked for permission to serve a late notice. It is discretionary, it is not granted as a matter of course, and the strength of an application can depend on how much time has gone by and on whether the public body already knew the essential facts. It is not a safety net to rely on, but it is a real possibility and it is not one you can pursue alone.

What matters most is that the position gets weaker with delay. If you are past ninety days, that is a reason to call today rather than a reason to give up.

What to do this week

If a public organization may share responsibility for what happened to you, three things are worth doing now.

Speak to a lawyer immediately, before anything else, because the timetable may already be running
Write down what you remember, including dates, places, names and anyone you told, without worrying about gaps
Keep anything you already have, including messages, appointment records, discharge papers or emails, and do not delete anything

Every deadline mentioned on this page is a general description rather than your date. Which clock applies to you, and when it started, depends on facts we would need to go through with you. Please have it checked rather than relying on the numbers here.

Frequently asked questions

Is the notice the same thing as filing a lawsuit?

No. It is a formal notice served on the public body before a case is filed, and it is a precondition to bringing one. The case itself comes later, subject to its own separate and also short deadline.

The assault happened at a private clinic, but the building is city owned. Does this apply?

Possibly, and it depends on who employed the people involved and who was responsible for the premises. Mixed arrangements of this kind are common and are exactly why the question needs answering quickly rather than assumed either way.

I was an adult, but the abuse began when I was a child. Where does that leave me?

It may leave you in a different position from an adult-only case, because the rules for childhood abuse differ. Where conduct spans both, the analysis can be genuinely complicated, and it is worth putting the full history in front of a lawyer rather than dividing it up yourself.

Can I still sue the individual if the ninety days have passed?

The claim against an individual runs on its own timetable and is not necessarily governed by the rules for public bodies. Whether it remains open depends on when the assault occurred and what it involved, which is worth reviewing rather than assuming.

Speak with us confidentially

If a public organization may be involved in what happened to you, this is the most time-sensitive situation in this area of law, and there is no advantage in waiting. Our overview of civil sexual assault claims explains how these cases work more generally, our guide to the New York filing calendar covers the other periods that may apply to you, and holding institutions accountable in New York explains the theories used against organizations. Start with a free confidential review, or call us at (212) 516-1868. Consultations are free and confidential, and we act for survivors on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless we recover for you.

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