As the Jeffrey Epstein files continue to expose powerful people who preyed on vulnerable girls and women, it has never been more important for survivors of sexual assault to understand their legal rights. A sea change in New York City’s legal landscape has just expanded those rights, creating a rare opportunity for survivors of gender-motivated violence to seek accountability in court — even for harms that occurred years ago.
Late last month, the New York City Council voted to override former Mayor Eric Adams’s veto and update the city’s Gender Motivated Violence Act (GMVA) to give survivors more time to bring their cases to court.
The #MeToo movement exposed how often sexual violence is enabled by silence, institutions, and power. But exposure alone is not accountability. Civil litigation is often the only path left open to survivors when criminal prosecution is unavailable or long past.
The GMVA is a powerful and rare civil rights remedy for survivors of sexual assault. It was first passed by the New York City Council in 2000, after the U.S. Supreme Court, in U.S. v. Morrison, struck down a similar federal cause of action and invited local governments to legislate instead. New York City is one of the only jurisdictions to have done so, giving survivors of gender-motivated violence rights they do not have elsewhere.
Under the Act, survivors need only allege that a rape or other sexual assault occurred in New York City to seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, and their attorneys’ fees and legal costs.
In 2022, the New York City Council amended the GMVA to create a lookback window, allowing survivors to bring otherwise untimely claims until March 1, 2025. Those amendments also broadened the Act to allow cases to be brought not only against individual perpetrators, but also against any institution or other individual who “enables, participates in, or conspires in the commission of a crime of violence motivated by gender.”
The City Council recognized accountability cannot stop with individual perpetrators alone. Focusing only on the person who committed the abuse is often not enough. Sexual violence is frequently allowed to continue because workplaces or other powerful institutions ignore warnings, silence complaints, and protect people with status. Those in charge often know what is happening long before survivors are taken seriously. By allowing lawsuits not just against abusers but also against those who helped enable or hide the abuse, the law acknowledges that real accountability must reach the systems that allowed the harm to continue.
The expansion enacted last month creates a new lookback window that allows survivors to bring claims against both individuals and institutions for conduct that occurred before Jan. 9, 2022, even if those claims were never filed and would otherwise be time-barred. Survivors who filed cases between March 1, 2023 and March 1, 2025 may amend or refile under the new amendment. This new window will be in effect for only 18 months, making the deadline to file July 29, 2027.
Critics argue that reopening old claims is unfair to defendants, but lookback windows do not lower the bar or strip away anyone’s rights. Survivors must still prove their cases, and defendants still get their day in court. Many survivors do not come forward for years, not because the harm was insignificant, but because the impact of abuse can take time to process and because speaking out can feel dangerous when the abuser holds power. These laws do not guarantee outcomes. They simply reopen the courts for people who were shut out by trauma, fear, and intimidation. A statute of limitations should not serve as de facto immunity.
At the same time, the U.S. Court of Appeals the Second Circuit is considering whether the city has the authority to enact these lookback windows at all. That uncertainty makes this moment critical. For survivors of gender-motivated violence in New York City, the window is open — but it may not remain so. The time to come forward is now.
Zoe Salzman is partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel
