Law c'tee to vote on statute of limitations bill

Under proposed law, adults will have from age 18 to 22 to sue for damages caused while minors.

By DAN IZENBERG
The Knesset Law Committee is due on Tuesday to approve a bill that drastically reduces the amount of time that victims of wrongdoing have to sue those responsible for it. In cases not involving sexual crimes, the statute of limitations will be reduced from seven to four years. In the case of minors, the blow will be even more severe. According to the Israel Bar Association, "the shortening of the statute of limitations will bar the door to the courts to many without justification and will deny the constitutional right of access to the courts." The law will not harm the rich, but rather those who cannot afford to have a lawyer at their side, attorney Yael Golsky, who lobbied against the bill for the Bar, told The Jerusalem Post. For minors, the law constitutes "a fatal blow to their rights," she charged. According to the bill, minors who reach adulthood will no longer automatically be able to sue those who have harmed them. According to the law in effect for the past 30 years, a person who was harmed while a minor has seven years from the day he turns 18 to file a lawsuit for damages. Under the proposed new law, an adult will only have from age 18 to 22 to sue for damages caused while he was a minor, and only if he proves to the court in advance that he has a convincing case. According to the non-profit organization National Council for the Child, "four years is too short a time. In the best of circumstances, the minor will have to file suit during his military service or immediately afterwards, periods of time during which, in most cases, he is not free to think about filing lawsuits, not in terms of time and not in terms of the money he has at his disposal." The National Council for the Child also pointed out that the law allows people to sue only for physical harm inflicted upon them while they were minors, whereas in most cases, minors suffer primarily emotional damage. According to Golsky, other groups who will suffer as a result of the new legislation are the weaker sectors of the population, such as new immigrants, minorities and the poor, "for whom the process of establishing a cause for suit takes longer and the resources available for pursuing it are smaller." The third group that will be harmed if the bill passes are those who suffered bodily harm as a result, for example, of medical negligence or traffic accidents. Golsky said it often takes time before it becomes clear that medical negligence was the cause of physical damage. In some cases, patients continue to depend on the same doctor they intend to sue for some time and may run out of time to do so if the statute of limitations is shortened. Justice Ministry attorney Erez Kaminetz told the committee that it is in the interest of those who stand to be sued to shorten the statute of limitations, because they must preserve evidence which might be needed in case a lawsuit is filed and put aside money in case they lose the case. Kaminetz also pointed out that while the potential respondent in a lawsuit has to undergo the expenses and trouble involved in preparing for a possible lawsuit, it is not certain that a plaintiff has a case, even if he sues. Only if a court upholds his suit does it becomes justified. In the meantime, those who stand to be sued must undertake these expenses, just in case. But Golsky replied that reducing the statute of limitations serves the interests of the insurance companies, hospitals, health clinics and the government itself, at the expense of the weaker elements of society.