Source: marylandmatters.org 3/25/25
Supporters and opponents brace for courtroom fight if bill passes
Facing the potential of multibillion-dollar payouts, lawmakers will consider legislation this week that would limit the state’s liability under the 2023 Child Victims Act.
But advocates, legal experts and, not unexpectedly, attorneys for one group of nearly 5,000 plaintiffs who claim to have been sexually abused at the hands of state workers, say the proposed fix goes too far, and is likely unconstitutional.
Even Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), the author of both the original bill and the new proposal to rein in the state’s liability, said Monday night that the proposed fix will likely be heavily rewritten. But something needs to be done, he said.
When it passed, the Child Victims Act was heralded as a way for survivors of institutional sexual abuse to seek justice. But it inadvertently threw open the doors to potentially budget-crushing payouts that would be difficult for the state to absorb in a year when it is flush with cash.
This is not one of those years.
I think back when this was passed into law, we, those in the forum, questioned the finances related to it since they did not put a cap in place. They merely put the ability to seek redress in place. Now, the state is facing what they should have anticipated then. Again, legislatures not thinking things through the first time. They will push this through and get it signed into law only to be legally challenged before the ink has time to dry.
The taxpayers won’t stand for keeping the state self-insured like this where a cap is logical or put into place their own version of a Feres Doctrine where the citizens cannot take on the state for any wrongdoing much like service members cannot take on the US military when there is wrongdoing.
It’s days like this that I genuinely thank the Germans for coming up with a word as perfect as schadenfreude.
““When you go through this, you always think you’re alone,” said Wilson, who has publicly discussed a childhood that included physical and sexual abuse. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think there were this many people — enough to bankrupt the state.”
I’m not proud of it but I’m literally laughing so much right now. The leviathan is finally eating itself.
I guess the buck stops with us. The state can point the finger, just not at themselves.