§ 213-b.Action by a victim of a criminal offense

CPLR 213-b overrides the shorter deadlines that would otherwise apply to a crime victim's civil suit — including the one-year period Article 2 sets for assault, battery, and similar intentional torts — and gives crime victims two separate, longer paths to recovery. Under the first, a victim may sue a defendant convicted of the crime at issue within seven years of the date the crime occurred. Under the second, a victim may sue a defendant convicted of a specified crime, as defined by the Executive Law's crime-victim compensation provisions, within ten years of the conviction date.

Tying the second track to the conviction date, rather than the crime date, matters in practice. Criminal cases can take years to resolve, and a victim pursuing civil compensation alongside or after a prosecution needs the civil clock to stay open while the criminal case runs its course. By measuring from conviction, the ten-year period gives victims of the most serious offenses a meaningful window that doesn't depend on how quickly the criminal justice system moves.

This section works alongside the estates law provisions governing wrongful death and survival claims, which it also displaces where a crime caused the victim's death. It complements 213-c, which gives sexual offense victims a still longer window without requiring any conviction at all, and 214-g, which revives certain time-barred claims for child sexual abuse victims.