On the eve of a new administration, outgoing Mayor Adams last Wednesday vetoed a bill to let survivors of gender-based violence sue the alleged responsible party past the statute of limitations.
Intro. 1297, introduced by Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Laurelton), would create a civil cause of action for violent gender-motivated crimes that occurred before Jan. 9, 2022, such that any person claiming to be injured by a party who commits, directs, enables, participates or conspires in the commission of such a crime may bring a civil claim against that party.
The claims brought under the law would have to be filed within 18 months of its effective date. Those who brought an eligible claim between March 1, 2023 and 2025 also would be able to amend or refile their claim to add a cause of action.
The Council passed the bill, known as the Gender-Motivated Violence Act, unanimously in November.
“Mayor Adams has chosen to use his final days in office to attempt to deny survivors of sexual and gender-motivated violence the opportunity to hold their abusers accountable,” Council spokesperson Julia Agos said in a statement. “There is no excuse for allowing those responsible for violent abuses to escape accountability.”
Brooks-Powers said in a statement on X that, on Christmas Eve, Adams was delivering a “cruel ‘gift’ to survivors of gender-motivated violence: a message that their right to seek justice can wait.”
“This veto is Mayor Adams once again bowing to big, powerful interests while turning his back on vulnerable New Yorkers,” she said.
Adams, however, said in his veto message that the bill is “effectively a debit card” for one law firm that filed 550 of the 580 GMVA cases brought against the city between March 2023 and 2025. Since a court dismissed most of them, he said, the bill’s “express intent” is to give that firm’s lawyers another chance at a profit.
“This is not justice but a windfall for a fancy law firm to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of survivors as well as all New York taxpayers,” Adams said in an emailed statement.
The cases were dismissed when a judge ruled that the law’s original language did not explicitly allow suits against institutions.
Jerome Block of Levy Konigsberg LLP, the firm in question, said in a statement that with their unanimous vote, lawmakers recognized that Intro. 1297 is needed to give survivors, including of sexual abuse in juvenile detention centers, by doctors at major New York hospitals and of trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein, a “fair pathway to justice.”
“Mayor Adams is slandering lawyers in a transparent effort to deflect attention from his callous veto that is attempting to deprive survivors of their legal rights,” Block said.
Adams wrote also that his administration stood “firmly in support of” survivors and claimed lawmakers did not engage on alternative compensation proposals for them.
Lawmakers will have 30 days to override the veto once it is received in January.
“This bill passed unanimously for a reason, and in the next term we must override this callous veto and restore survivors’ right to seek accountability,” Brooks-Powers said. Block said his firm is confident the Council will override it, and likely incoming Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) in a statement to The New York Post vowed that it would.