On Nov. 23, 2023, the one-year statute of limitations extension for claims based on sexual offenses provided by the New York's Adult Survivors Act expired. By that time, more than 3,000 civil claims had been filed under the act. Those lawsuits include claims against celebrities (Bill Cosby, Axl Rose, Sean Combs), politicians (Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams), state agents (corrections officers, police officers, judges), doctors (Robert Hadden, Darius Paduch), business executives (Leon Black of Apollo Management, Mike Jeffries of Abercrombie) and companies of all kinds (art museums, healthcare systems, religious institutions, etc.). Even more claims continue to trickle in, based on tolling agreements between potential plaintiffs and defendants after their private negotiations did not result in a settlement.

While it is hard enough to defend a civil sexual assault claim under normal circumstances, as there are often no witnesses to the event and the timeline can be muddled by different individuals' recollections, claims filed under the Adult Survivors Act come with extra difficulty—both to prosecute and defend—because many of these claims related to allegations that are years, if not decades, old.

Because of the age of these claims, it can be difficult or impossible to obtain medical records from the time when the offense was alleged to have occurred. Most doctors' offices only keep medical records for seven years, and this is even more true of the old paper records that were in use at the time of many of these claims occurred. Many of the witnesses to the events may have died or moved out of state. If text messages, emails or letters about the event existed, they may no longer exist.