A new law passed by the
New York State Legislature
which Governor Cuomo
supports, “The Child Victims
Act,” will allow victims
of childhood sexual
abuse to recover damages
in a court of law. The bill
extends the civil statute of
limitations to allow civil
actions to be brought until
a victim’s 55th birthday for
child sexual abuse which occurred
before age 18. A one
year window has been created
for adult survivors to
commence civil actions for
damages which under current
law are barred because
of the statute of limitations.
This one year window will
begin six months after the
law takes effect so victims
up until their 55th birthday
can bring civil lawsuits
against individuals or public
and private institutions
from churches to public
school districts for child
sexual abuse that they may
have suffered many decades
ago. The Legislature also
removes the current Notice
of Claim requirements for
public entities in cases involving
child sexual abuse
so a Notice of Intention to
make claim against municipalities
within 90 days is not
required in order to bring a
lawsuit.
WORKING TOGETHER: Judge Noach Dear and law clerk Deema Azizi inside Dear’s chambers
at the Kings County Supreme Court. Photo by Maya Harrison
This duo rules!
Supreme Court’s Orthodox judge and
Muslim law clerk lead by example
BY MAYA HARRISON
Sexual abuse against a
child is a shameful unforgivable
act. It is a traumatizing
experience that can
take a lifetime to come to
terms with. While this new
law cannot erase what happened
to victims, it will give
victims an opportunity to
recover damages in a Court
of Law for what happened to
them.
While the one year window
to bring a legal action
will not begin until 6
months after the law takes
effect victims should consult
an attorney as soon as
possible to begin the painful
and arduous task of their
gathering medical records
and other evidence of their
victimization.
COURIER L 18 IFE, FEB. 8–14, 2019 DT
AND NATALLIE ROCHA
This Kings County Supreme Court justice
and his law clerk rule in favor of
peaceful coexistence.
Judge Noach Dear, an Orthodox
Jew, and his court attorney Deema
Azizi, a Syrian Muslim, have been
turning heads at the Supreme Court
since they began working together two
years ago, Dear told this newspaper.
“When people see Deema for the
fi rst time, they always do a double
take,” he said. “With the response,
‘What a combination, an Orthodox
Jew with a Syrian Muslim woman —
it’s unbelievable.’ ”
Dear, who wears a yarmulke daily,
said that he and Azizi, who dons a hijab
every day, talk openly about how
their backgrounds overlap, including
their shared commitments to wearing
religious garb, keeping religiousbased
diets, and daily prayer.
“I could identify with her and her
appearance because I wear a yarmulke,”
the judge said. “Religious
women who cover their hair are often
not afforded the same opportunities by
the way that they dress, and because of
their backgrounds.”
Career-advancing opportunities,
however, have not been few and far between
for Azizi. The clerk previously
served two internships with magistrate
judges in Brooklyn and Manhattan,
and worked with clients locked up
in the country’s notorious Guantanamo
Bay prison in Cuba as a student at the
City of New York School of Law.
But her family’s escape from their
native Syria to the United States, and
the resilience she learned from that
journey, played an equally important
role as her legal experience did in
landing Azizi her current clerkship,
Dear said.
Azizi, whose family fl ed Syria when
she was a child, said her early years
spent living under a dictator inspired
her to pursue a legal career, so she
could learn how to advocate for herself
and others like her.
“My family escaped when I was
6-years-old,” said Azizi, who grew up
in Bay Ridge. “We did escape that dictatorship
in Syria and we came here
for freedom. I am grateful for Judge
Dear because he gave me the opportunity
to be here. He boosted my confi -
dence in my capabilities by accepting
me for who I am.”
The key to Dear and Azizi’s success
as a team is their ability to present
themselves in “an approachable,
kind, professional way,” according to
the judge’s Senior Court Clerk Suzanne
Marsh, who said she has worked with
him for three years, and forged her own
friendship with Azizi in that time.
“They came in as working people
without any pre-judgement and that’s,
I think, a big part of going forward as
a team,” Marsh said. “That’s the way a
courtroom runs — no pre-judgement.”
Dear and Azizi hope that by bringing
the mutual admiration and respect
they have for one another into
the courtroom, they will inspire even
more diversity within the local legal
community, the clerk said.
“I think we need more diversity in
the court system, because we need to
recognize that everyone who walks
into the courtroom deserves to be recognized
and heard,” Azizi said.