Hartford — A General Assembly task force, which is considering recommendations to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits, heard Wednesday from a University of Pennsylvania professor who has tracked and studied the issue across the country for the past 16 years.

Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law scholar who heads the group Child USA, spent more than an hour answering questions from task force members and offered numerous statistics about states that have increased or temporarily abolished statutes of limitations in civil cases and the impact of the changes.

Hamilton told the task force, headed by state Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, that on average it takes a person until age 52 to reveal to someone they were sexually assaulted as a child. That is one year later than the current statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit in Connecticut.

“That means a large segment of victims have not been able to get justice,” she told the task force.

Hamilton said that in the past few years, 24 states have increased their statutes of limitations, not just giving victims to an average age of 55, but in the case of seven states, offering a window of one to three years for any person, regardless of their age to file a suit. These states include New York, New Jersey and California. One state, Vermont, has eliminated its statute of limitations to file suits.

The task force is one result of an unsuccessful effort in the last legislative session to eliminate the statute of limitations for 27 months to give sexual assault victims who had been prevented from filing lawsuits because they were older than 48, the cutoff age at the time, an opportunity to do so.

This would have included many people who say they were sexually assaulted by priests in the state’s Catholic dioceses but did not reveal their abuse until later in life. After behind-the-scenes negotiations, the bill that was passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Ned Lamont increased the age to file a suit by three years, to 51, and established the task force.

The task force has a Jan. 15, 2020, deadline to submit its report with recommendations to the General Assembly, giving lawmakers a chance to craft a bill to introduce into the upcoming legislative session that begins in February.

The task force on Wednesday agreed to meet again Dec. 17 to possibly hear from victims of abuse, as well as insurance companies who cover entities that have been sued. Members are then scheduled to meet again on Jan. 7, 2020, at which time they will decide on what recommendations to make to the legislature.

Flexer, who has pushed for an extension of the statute of limitations, said after Wednesday’s meeting that she is interested in the Vermont law that eliminated that state's statute of limitations, but she also would like to develop a consensus among task force members on a proposed change.

Hamilton was asked about the likelihood of false claims being filed if the statute of limitations is increased.

She said there has not been one recorded case of that in states that have increased the window to file a claim. She said that is because attorneys who take on such cases, which cost an average of $250,000 to handle, are unwilling to take on one that will not be successful. In addition, she said, plaintiffs still have the burden of proof and need evidence and corroboration.

Opponents of the change have said such cases are difficult to defend because the perpetrator and witnesses may have died and documents may no longer be available. Hamilton said insurance companies and defense lawyers have not been able to provide any data about the extent of false claims.

Hamilton also was asked if there would be a flood of cases if the statute of limitations were increased, but she said that has not been the case in states that have made the change.

Flexer said one argument she heard in the last legislative session is that the increase in lawsuits would destroy some private colleges and force the closure of Catholic churches as they would have to pay out settlements and jury awards.

Hamilton said that has not occurred elsewhere, as insurers can pay damages.

“I think it’s fair for institutions that ignored the suffering of thousands of children to be held accountable,” she said, adding the liability forces institutions and their insurers to be proactive on the issue.

Asked why people wait until much later in life to come forward, Hamilton explained that children often do not understand what happened to them and issues related to the abuse, such as PTSD, depression, feelings of suicide, substance abuse and health ailments, create “a morass” that “all get in the way of a person coming forward to confront their abuser.” She said they often need the help of therapist “to put the puzzle together.”

In many cases, she said, the abuser is a family member. And in many cases the victim waits until their parents die to reveal what happened because they don’t want to burden their parents with the information. She said an estimated one-third of victims never reveal their abuse.

“There’s a lot of people who go to their graves with this,” she said.

Hamilton said giving people the ability to file lawsuits results in the release of information from files and documents, such as Catholic church archives, that can then help other victims. She said FBI statistics show the average perpetrator abuses 100 victims over his or her life.

“Right now the force of the movement here and globally is to help child abuse victims come forward because of the recidivism of perpetrators,” she said. Recidivism is the likelihood to commit another crime or abuse again.

Asked about the impact of the potential change on state government, Hamilton said that if victims have incurred medical costs under Medicaid due to the abuse they suffered, as she said many do, the entity or person found to be liable for the abuse would have to reimburse state government for those costs. She said New York received a $250 million windfall due to this provision.

There could be an offsetting cost, though, if a provision in the bill introduced in the last session to exempt government entities from the extension of the statute of limitations, is not included in the upcoming legislation. Groups facing lawsuits objected to government entities, such as schools, being exempted from the change.

j.wojtas@theday.com