Democrats in the United States Congress have proposed a new law which would fully scrap the statute of limitations for federal civil sex abuse cases.

The proposed legislation has been named Virginia’s Law after Virginia Giuffre, who accused the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates of sexually abusing and trafficking her in the 1990s when she was a teenager.

Giuffre died by suicide in April last year after reaching a settlement in her sex-abuse case against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom and a friend of Epstein’s.

What is Virginia’s Law?

The proposal for the new law has been introduced to the US Congress by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez, alongside Giuffre’s family.

It is a federal bill which would remove the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits regarding sexual abuse and trafficking.

Civil cases are private disputes between individuals and organisations, while criminal cases involve the government prosecuting individuals for breaking laws.

Under federal criminal law, most offences must be prosecuted within five years, but there is no time limit at all for many trafficking and child sexual abuse crimes, which can be charged decades after the fact.

According to US federal anti‑trafficking law, a victim of federal trafficking‑related offences has 10 years to lodge a civil suit after a crime took place. If the crime took place when the victim was a minor, then they have 10 years to sue from when they turn 18.

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In September 2022, Congress passed a law removing the statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse, but that change did not apply to any crimes committed before that date.

Virginia’s Law calls for the 10-year statute of limitations for all federal civil cases relating to sexual abuse and trafficking – regardless of when abuses were committed – to be scrapped.

Introducing the law on Tuesday, Schumer told Congress: “When the truth of Jeffrey Epstein finally started to come out, when the world finally started to listen to their stories, oftentimes the laws in the books said, ‘Sorry, it’s too late. The deadline to bring your case has passed.

He said Virginia’s Law “will change that, because justice for victims of abuse should not have an expiration date”.

The bill will ultimately mean that many of Epstein’s alleged victims will now be able to lodge civil claims against Epstein’s estate.

“Virginia’s dream was to inspire and empower survivors to come forward in a world that too often turns away from abuse and pushes it into the shadows. She wanted to bring light,” Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, said during a news conference in the US Capitol.

Virginia’s Law also expands victims’ legal options in other respects, such as by covering relevant sex crimes committed outside the US where a US court has jurisdiction – for example, in cases where the abuser or victim is American or where there has been sex trafficking to or from the US.

Virginia’s Law would apply to federal cases only and will not change state statutes of limitations.

“The bill applies only to federal sex abuse crimes involving the mails or interstate commerce as stipulated in 18 USC 2421 et seq,” constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein told Al Jazeera.

This means the bill would cover federal sex‑abuse and trafficking crimes, which fall under the 1910 federal law, the Mann Act – cases in which the abuse involved crossing state lines or using the mails, the internet or other channels of interstate commerce.

“The federal bill would not supersede state laws that commonly create civil causes of action for sexual abuse, including assault. The state laws would complement the federal law,” Fein said.

How does the bill pass into law?

The bill will have to gain the approval of enough members of the Republican-dominated Senate and the House of Representatives before it can be signed into law.

The House includes 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats, with two seats empty. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, 45 Democrats and two independent senators who caucus with the Democratic Party. So far, there is no scheduled date for a vote on Virginia’s Law in either chamber.

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In both chambers, the law requires a simple majority of members present and voting, which means it needs 51 votes in the Senate and 217 votes in the House. The bill must pass both chambers before it goes to the Oval Office for the president to sign it into law.

However, a bipartisan push succeeded last year in forcing the Department of Justice to release all unclassified files from its Epstein investigation through the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

What is a statute of limitations?

A statute of limitations is a time limit for bringing a case. In criminal law, it sets how long prosecutors have to file charges; in civil law, it sets how long a victim has to sue their abuser.

If this time limit elapses, a defendant cannot be prosecuted or sued, even if there is strong evidence that they committed a crime.

Statutes of limitations exist to limit the deterioration of evidence, promote swift enforcement of the law and provide greater legal certainty, according to the FBI.

“Memories fade, witnesses die, and documents are commonly lost over time,” lawyer Fein said.

Crimes besides sexual abuse also have statutes of limitations.

In the US, statutes of limitations for nonfederal civil and criminal cases vary by state. In criminal cases, they can also vary depending on whether the sexual abuse was a “felony” or “misdemeanour”, and whether the victim was a minor or an adult.

Felonies are serious crimes punishable by a year or more in a state or federal prison, while misdemeanours are “less serious” crimes that are punishable by fines, probation, or less than one year in a local jail.

For example, in Alabama, there is no statute of limitations for criminal cases of rape, sexual abuse involving violence or threats of violence, or sexual offences against a victim below the age of 16.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, the criminal statute of limitations is six years for rape and three years for certain sexual assault offences.

States usually have separate statutes of limitations for civil cases, and they can be very different from the criminal ones.

Many states are moving to increase or scrap statutes of limitations for sexual abuse cases. Iowa, Vermont, California, Texas and others have eliminated or greatly extended criminal statutes of limitations for many sex crimes for both criminal and civil cases.

Other states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida and Alabama, have expanded civil filing windows, often allowing victims to sue decades after the abuse or after it is discovered. Several have also lengthened or lifted criminal statutes of limitations for certain sex crimes, particularly where there is strong evidence, such as DNA.

Virginia’s Law will not supersede any state laws, as it will relate to federal cases only.

What can we expect if Virginia’s Law passes?

The bill would scrap civil time limits so that many survivors whose cases are currently time‑barred would now be able to sue. Some lawyers expect a flurry of lawsuits, particularly from Epstein victims, if this happens.

In May 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the New York State Adult Survivors Act (ASA), allowing adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits, regardless of when the abuse occurred. In 2019, New York had opened a similar window for people abused as children under its Child Victims Act.

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The ASA expired in late November 2023. While the Act was active, more than 3,000 civil suits were filed under it, including writer E Jean Carroll’s successful sexual abuse and defamation case against President Donald Trump.

In June 2019, Carroll published an excerpt of her book in a New York Magazine article alleging that Trump had raped her in 1996. Trump denied these allegations. In November 2019, Carroll sued Trump for defamation. After the ASA took effect in 2022, she filed her lawsuit against Trump for defamation as well as sexual abuse.

“If the law passes, an indeterminate number of women may bring civil actions against men identified in the Epstein files, [for example] Prince Andrew, seeking damages,” Fein said.

“The number is unknown because victims commonly are reluctant to sue because of [the] social stigma attached to women perceived to be promiscuous.”

Have some victims been barred from suing in other ways?

The Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program was a fund set up in June 2020 by Epstein’s estate, with court approval in the US Virgin Islands, to provide compensation to many women who say they were abused. However, they were required to waive their right to sue Epstein or his estate in exchange for the compensation.

Some 225 claims were submitted under this fund before it shut down in August 2021 at the end of its remit. It is unclear whether women who received payouts from the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program would be able to benefit from Virginia’s Law.