Out of court settlements should be illegal.

[Rev. Rye]

Hadn' t the statute of limitations ran out?

Yep, it did. At least the criminal SoL did. And now that I have some information on what the New York SoL for cases like that was at the time, I can do some more elaboration.

Giuffre filed the suit due to the State of New York expanding the SoL for cases such as these. Since Giuffre was 17 in March 2001, when the abuse was alleged to have taken place, under the old law, she would have either until March 2006 to file criminal charges, or her 21st birthday in August 2004 to file a civil lawsuit. She did neither.

Then in August 2019, Governor Cuomo temporarily expanded the SoL for such cases. For criminal cases, it was until the victim reached the age of 28, and for civil cases, until the victim reached 55 years old. When the SoL changed, she was 36, therefore, a civil suit was her only option.