The Arizona Legislature recently passed an important amendment to “Geri’s Law”, that now gives crime victims one full year after the conclusion of the criminal case to file a civil law suit directly against the criminal — even if  there is no conviction.

Prior to the enactment of “Geri’s Law” formally codifed as Arizona Revised Statute 12-511 entitled “civil actions arising from criminal conduct”, a civil statute of limitations only gave crime victims two years from the date of the crime to file civil actions against criminals.  The problem was that it often took much longer for the criminal system to prosecute defendants —and in the meantime, victims would lose their civil rights.

This loophole was exposed in the case of Geri Johnson.  She was the victim of alleged repeated sexual molestations as a child.  But her abuser was not convicted until more than six years after the incident—and after her civil statute of limitations had expired.

With the guidance of the Never Again Foundation, she took her case to the Court of Appeals.  The court held that the loophole favored criminally convicted defendants and that her only option was to take the matter to the Arizona Legislature.  She did.  In 2003, the Arizona Legislature unanimously passed the law closing the loophole, and giving victims one new year period of time after the criminal matter is finished to sue their perpetrator.

The new 2005 amendment to Geri’s Law extends the civil statute of limitations to crime victims even if their perpetrator is not criminally convicted.  This is important because the criminal burden of proof is much higher than the civil burden of proof.  Now, crime victims do not need to gamble their civil rights away in betting whether  prosecutors will win criminal convictions to the highest standard of proof.  The importance of this was exposed in several famous case such as the O.J. Simpson murder case, the Kobe Bryant rape case, and the Michael Jackson molestation case.  Geri’s Law has already been used in two Arizona cases against criminals.  “I feel a sense of comfort knowing that I am helping other people,”  Geri said.