New Jersey Juvenile Detention Center Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Centralized in MCL

Lawyers are set to meet with the New Jersey judge appointed to preside over the claims this week, as similar lawsuits over juvenile detention center sexual abuse problems continue to move forward in several different states.

The New Jersey judge recently appointed to preside over more than 100 child sexual assault lawsuits filed against the state’s juvenile justice system will meet with lawyers involved in the claims for the first time this week, to review the status of pretrial proceedings and plans for managing claims brought over abuse at a number of different juvenile detention centers throughout New Jersey.

In May 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation extending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse civil lawsuits in the state, providing survivors until their 55th birthday, or within seven years after they first realized the abuse caused them harm, to bring a claim. The change also created a two year “window” for individuals with claims that were previously time-barred claims to file a lawsuit in New Jersey against individuals or organizations responsible for the conduct.

Since then, at least 108 survivors have filed claims against the state itself, indicating that they were abused as minors while being held in the New Jersey juvenile detention system. The lawsuits involve horrific descriptions of intimidation, sexual harassment, physical abuse and rape at the hands of state employees, who were supposed to be ensuring their safety.

In March, a group of plaintiffs with New Jersey juvenile detention center sexual abuse lawsuits pending in the state submitted an application (PDF) to the Administrative Office of the Courts, requesting that all of the claims be consolidated before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. In May, the office published a public notice announcing that the New Jersey Supreme Court had granted that request, centralizing the litigation in Middlesex County under Superior Court Judge Bruce J. Kaplan, as part of a multicounty litigation (MCL).

Now that the state supreme court has created the New Jersey juvenile detention center sexual abuse MCL, Judge Kaplan will guide the parties through coordinated discovery and various motions that will potentially affect all parties. However, if a settlement agreement or other resolution for the litigation is not reached before all pretrial proceedings have been completed, each case may still have to go before an individual jury to determine if the state is liable for each individual plaintiff’s alleged injuries, physical and mental.

Judge Kaplan issued an initial case management order (PDF) last month, scheduling the first status conference for August 6, via Zoom video conference.

The order included instructions for the parties to meet and confer in preparation for the conference, to see where they are already in consensus on a discovery plan and schedule for amendments, pleadings, motions and trials.

The Judge also noted that none of the juvenile detention center abuse lawsuits can contain personal identifiers of plaintiffs, and shall be restricted to one plaintiff or a related household of plaintiffs. Those filed as joint complaints, involving two or more different, unrelated plaintiffs, will have 30 days to file new individual claims, with the Court offering to sign an order preserving the original date of filing. This helps ensure that those claims stay officially filed within the two-year statute of limitations “window” built into New Jersey’s new child sex abuse statute of limitations law.

Juvenile Detention Center Sex Abuse Lawsuits

New Jersey is only one of several states that have passed similar, or even more expansive, laws allowing victims of child sexual abuse to file claims decades after their abuse occurred. While huge numbers of claims have been filed against non-state institutions, like the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America, many have also been filed against the states themselves involving incidents that occurred in juvenile detention centers.

New York was the first state to pass such a law, signing the Child Victims Act into law in February 2019, opening a two-year window for claims previously barred by the statute of limitations to be filed. Between August 2019 and 2021, at least 10,000 child sexual abuse lawsuits were filed in New York state.

However, those included more than 250 claims brought against the state over abuse at detention facilities run by the New York City Department of Corrections. The lawsuits contain allegations against the Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn, Horizon juvenile centers, Riker’s Island and others.

Maryland passed its own child victims act in 2023, but instead abolished statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits entirely, leading to a court battle that resulted in the Maryland Supreme Court affirming the law’s constitutionality.  About a year after the new law was passed, more than 100 juvenile detention child sex abuse lawsuits were brought against Maryland by individuals who say they were sexually assaulted as wards of the state.

Similar laws have been passed in California, North Carolina and other states.