Virginia’s Law
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill adds civil-remedy sections to title 18 chapters 109A and 117, allowing victims to sue perpetrators and knowing financial beneficiaries in federal district court for damages and reasonable attorneys fees. It generally gives victims 10 years from accrual or, for minors, 10 years after turning 18, but removes any time limit for claims tied to listed sexual-abuse and transportation offenses. It also amends the existing human-trafficking civil remedy in section 1595 to remove the time limit for claims involving forced labor, trafficking, or sex trafficking, and creates a one-year filing window for certain covered actions that were previously time-barred or dismissed.
Who Benefits and How
Sexual-abuse victims, trafficking victims, minor survivors, survivor attorneys, and federal civil-rights litigants benefit from new or expanded access to damages, attorneys fees, and federal court jurisdiction. Victims whose claims involve the listed most serious offenses benefit most because the bill removes the filing deadline entirely. Previously dismissed or time-barred trafficking claimants may benefit from the one-year covered-action revival window.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Perpetrators, knowing financial beneficiaries, trafficking ventures, and federal court defendants face broader civil liability, longer or unlimited filing windows, potential damages, and attorneys-fee exposure. Federal district courts must handle new causes of action and stay civil cases during related criminal investigations or prosecutions. Defense attorneys and liability insurers may need to account for revived claims during the one-year window.
Key Provisions
- Creates title 18 civil remedies for victims of chapter 109A sexual-abuse offenses and chapter 117 transportation offenses.
- Authorizes damages and reasonable attorneys fees against perpetrators and knowing financial beneficiaries.
- Requires civil actions to be stayed while related criminal investigations or prosecutions are pending.
- Removes any filing deadline for specified serious sexual-abuse, transportation, forced-labor, trafficking, and sex-trafficking claims.
- Provides a one-year window for certain covered actions that were previously time-barred or dismissed.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates new federal civil remedies for sexual-abuse and transportation-for-illegal-sexual-activity victims, removes the limitations period for severe human-trafficking civil actions, and gives certain previously time-barred covered actions a one-year reopening window.
Key Policy Areas
civil_rights, criminal_justice, courts
Primary Purpose
Creates new federal civil remedies for sexual-abuse and transportation-for-illegal-sexual-activity victims, removes the limitations period for severe human-trafficking civil actions, and gives certain previously time-barred covered actions a one-year reopening window.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Sexual-abuse victims
- Trafficking victims
- Minor survivors
- Survivor attorneys
- Federal civil-rights litigants
Identified Costs
- Perpetrators
- Knowing financial beneficiaries
- Trafficking ventures
- Federal district courts
- Defense attorneys
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Ms. Leger Fernandez introduced the following bill; which was referred …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Defense attorneys, Survivor attorneys
Positive-direction: Survivor attorneys
Negative-direction: Defense attorneys
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "burdened"
- → ['Federal district courts', 'Defense attorneys', 'Liability insurers']
- "beneficiaries"
- → ['Sexual-abuse victims', 'Trafficking victims', 'Minor survivors']
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology