Eliminates statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes

Summary#

A-5660, titled “Eliminates statute of limitations for certain forgery and fraud crimes when parties involved have history of domestic violence,” is an introduced bill that would amend New Jersey’s criminal time-limit law, N.J.S. 2C:1-6. Its stated goal is to remove the deadline for prosecuting certain crimes when a specified court or protective order connects the accused and the victim.

  • The change would cover any crime in Chapter 21 of Title 2C, which includes forgery and other fraudulent practices—not only the examples named in the bill’s statement.
  • A prosecution could begin at any time if either: the accused is or has been subject to a domestic-violence restraining order, and the crime’s victim is the victim of domestic violence for which that order was entered; or at the time of the offense, the accused is or previously was subject to a specified judicial or protective order prohibiting contact with the crime’s victim.
  • The bill would apply only to offenses committed on or after its effective date. Earlier offenses would remain subject to the five-year limit described in the bill.
  • The bill removes a deadline; it does not require prosecutors to bring a case or guarantee that a prosecution will succeed. It has been introduced and is not law.

What it means for you#

  • People accused of a covered crime: If one of the bill’s order-related conditions applies, prosecutors would no longer face a time limit for starting a case.
  • Victims: A qualifying case could be started after more than five years, but the bill does not require prosecutors to bring one.
  • Other people: The bill does not change the time limit for crimes outside Chapter 21 or for Chapter 21 crimes that do not meet either condition. It does not directly change civil claims.

Money#

No cost information is available in the supplied material.

  • The bill provides no spending amount or staffing estimate. Any added prosecution costs are not estimated.

What is unclear#

  • The supplied material does not include the full current statute or the cited order statute, N.J.S. 2C:28-5.1. I could not independently verify the current law or describe the orders covered by that citation.
  • The bill does not set out a special process for deciding whether an order and the victim’s identity meet its conditions.
  • The bill does not explain how the change would interact with other rules that may affect a criminal case.
  • The bill is at the introduced stage; whether it will pass is uncertain.

Case for#

  • A possible argument for the bill is that it would allow a case to proceed even when a qualifying crime is discovered or brought forward more than five years later.
  • The order-related conditions limit the change to cases with a specified link between the accused and the victim, rather than removing time limits for all crimes.
  • The bill’s stated goal is to address certain forgery and fraud crimes in situations involving domestic violence.

Case against#

  • One concern is that evidence and memories may become less reliable as more time passes, while the bill sets no outer time limit for qualifying prosecutions.
  • The change covers all Chapter 21 crimes when a condition applies, not just forgery and fraud crimes highlighted in the bill’s title and statement.
  • The bill does not spell out a special process for applying its conditions, leaving those details unclear from the supplied text.