R.I. Civil Rights Act (H 7361, S 2143)

The General Assembly unanimously passed a bill promoted by the Affiliate to make clear that plaintiffs have three years, rather than one year, to sue under the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act, a major state law prohibiting discrimination in employment and other settings. The bill was in response to a recent divided R.I. Supreme Court ruling that concluded that complainants have only one year to bring suit under the law, even though the default statute of limitations for virtually all other personal injury actions in Rhode Island is three years. In vetoing the bill, the Governor claimed that the three-year proviso was “unreasonable” to the business community, even though — for almost two decades, until last year’s court ruling –- employers and employees had operated under a three-year assumption. As a result of the veto, a victim of discrimination now has a shorter time to file suit than just about any other type of claimant, including a person who is a victim of a dog bite (three years) or of property damage to his or her car (ten years).