By Professor Jennifer Wriggins
Domestic violence continues to be a huge problem in the United States, and it causes harm to survivors that is mostly uncompensated; the number of lawsuits seeking recovery for harms caused by domestic violence is minuscule.[1] The short time limit for bringing a lawsuit for assault and battery in many states is one reason these harms are so often uncompensated.[2] But a newly passed state law introduced by a Maine Law student, who also serves in the state legislature, removes one of the barriers to survivors getting compensation for their injuries from domestic violence by making the time limit for assault, battery, and false imprisonment claims the same as for car accident claims.[3]
In most states, the time limit for bringing lawsuits for battery, assault, and false imprisonment typically is much shorter than the time limit for bringing a negligence case like a car accident case.[4] In Maine until 2021, this division was part of the law – two years for assault, battery, and false imprisonment, six years for negligence.[5] Survivors of domestic violence assault, battery, and false imprisonment face many barriers to filing a civil lawsuit within two years. Often survivors are getting back on their feet, maintaining physical safety, and healing both physically and psychologically.[6] There is broad agreement that intentional harms like assault and battery are more serious morally than negligence. So the law’s structure in cutting off survivors’ opportunity to sue for assault battery or false imprisonment at two years, while it gives victims of negligence six years, makes no sense.
When I researched the reason for this common difference in state time limits for suing, I found it stemmed from an Act of Parliament from 1623![7] For reasons unknown, the English Parliament decided in that year that victims of intentional torts deserved less time to file lawsuits for their injuries than victims of unintentional or indirect torts. This disparity was carried over to U.S. law, adopted by many states and has been pretty much unexamined ever since.
This year, Maggie O’Neil (H. Rep. 15th District), a Maine legislator who is also a law student at University of Maine School of Law, introduced a bill to fix this problem after learning about this issue in law school. The bill was called “An Act to Ensure That Victims of Assault, Battery and False Imprisonment, Including Victims of Domestic Violence, Have Parity Under Tort Law.”[8] The bill made the time limit for assault, battery, and false imprisonment the same as for negligence – six years. After a hearing in March 2021 at which I testified,[9] the bill was passed and became law on June 15, 2021, to be effective immediately. This long, long overdue reform will improve the law and make it fairer. Now it’s time for other states to follow suit.
[1] Merle H. Weiner, Civil Recourse Insurance: Increasing Access to the Tort System for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence, 62 ARIZ. L. REV. 957, 960-961 (2020), Jennifer Wriggins, Domestic Violence in the First Year Torts Curriculum, 54 JNL. OF LEGAL ED. 511, 512-513 (2005).
[2] The short time limit is one reason and also there are many other reasons why harm from domestic violence such as assault and battery are so rarely compensated in addition to the short statute of limitations; they include insurance exclusions, psychological barriers, safety issues, and the fact that most people have minimal assets that can be recovered in a lawsuit. Weiner, 62 ARIZ. L. REV. at 964-984, Martha Chamallas & Jennifer Wriggins, THE MEASURE OF INJURY: RACE, GENDER & TORT LAW 70-75 (2010).
[3] LD 690 (130th Maine Legislature), codified as 14 MRSA sec. 753.
[4] Martha Chamallas & Jennifer Wriggins, The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender and Tort Law 74 (2010).
[5] 14 MRSA 753 (prior to this year’s changes).
[6] Martha Chamallas & Jennifer Wriggins, The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender and Tort Law 73-74 (2010).
[7] Jennifer Wriggins, Domestic Violence Torts, 75 So. Cal. L. Rev. 121, 170-175 (2001).
[8] (LD 690)(130th Legislature).