Step by Step Guide Through the Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Process

Sexual abuse can be an extremely difficult thing to overcome. While getting justice through the legal system can help victims get a sense of closure, the process is known for being difficult. Depending on when you report the abuse and the evidence available, the authorities might press criminal charges against the abuser. However, you may also pursue justice in a civil lawsuit for sexual abuse.

Your case begins when you report the abuse. It is normal for survivors of sexual abuse to wait many years before reporting the abuse. The sooner you report, the stronger your civil claims may be, and the more likely you will get justice. An attorney can help you determine who should be held responsible, what kind of evidence is necessary, and what kind of compensation you deserve. While preparing your civil case, you might also have to deal with a criminal trial. Evidence used in the criminal trial and a guilty verdict may be used to support your civil claims.

Call The Law Office of Andrew Shubin at (814) 826-3586 and ask our sexual abuse lawyers for a free case evaluation to begin your civil case.

Beginning a Civil Sexual Abuse Case by Reporting the Abuse

It is often very difficult for survivors of sexual abuse to come forward with their claims. Many wait years, sometimes decades, before telling anyone that they were abused. While waiting this long is understandable, it can hinder your civil case, as evidence might be hard to come by after so many years.

Ideally, you should contact the police as soon as you can. If you are being abused as a minor, inform a trusted adult about what is happening. This might mean telling a parent, teacher, coach, or a neighbor. It often takes time for people to come forward, especially younger victims. They are often threatened into silence while enduring repeated acts of sexual abuse. Even so, the sooner you report, the stronger your civil case may be and the more likely the abuser will be criminally charged.

In many cases, the longer someone waits, the more evidence disappears. Perhaps other abuse victims or people who know about the abuse and might testify as witnesses move away. Even if they do not, their memories may fade, and their testimony may no longer be quite as powerful. More solid evidence like DNA tends to disappear very quickly. The abusers themselves might leave the state, and finding them could be very difficult.

Even if you have waited many years before coming forward, our sexual abuse lawyers might still have time to help you file a civil claim, depending on your state. The civil statute of limitations in some states allows survivors of sexual abuse several years to file their claims. These limitation periods are often longer for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Even so, not all states have very long limitation periods, and you should speak to an attorney as soon as possible.

Contacting an Attorney to Help You with Your Civil Sexual Abuse Case

After you report the abuse to the police, you should contact an experienced lawyer to help you prepare your civil claims while also getting ready to participate in a criminal trial. Ideally, you should speak to an attorney soon. This might mean calling a lawyer right after speaking to the police or even calling an attorney first so they can help you file a report with law enforcement. Again, be mindful of the statute of limitations in your state.

This is a very emotionally and psychologically difficult experience, and your lawyer can significantly ease your legal burden. Legal documentation, paperwork, filing things, meetings, status hearings, and other parts of the legal process can be very tough to navigate, especially if you have no legal background or training. Your attorney should be able to do all this for you while you focus on the important things, namely preparing your own testimony.

Your lawyer should also immediately begin helping you find evidence. As described in more detail below, evidence can be tricky to find in abuse cases, as abusers often work to eliminate evidence and cover their tracks. Your attorney will also determine who should be held liable, plan legal strategies, and build your case.

Determining Who Should Be Held Responsible in a Civil Case for Sexual Abuse

While your first thought might be that the person who actually committed the abuse should be held responsible, this might not be the whole story. Other people or parties might be connected to the abuse and may be held liable. Alternatively, you might not know the identity of the abuser and need help finding them.

The person who committed the abuse, of course, should be brought to justice. Unfortunately, this is not always easy. For many, the abuser is someone they know and are close to. Maybe they are a family friend. Maybe they are a family member. Reporting them to the authorities might cause painful divisions in your family and close loved ones. Even so, you deserve justice.

While it is very common for an abuser to be someone the victim knows, this is not the case for everyone. If a stranger abused you, you might not know their name or where to find them. This is why reporting to the police as soon as possible is so important. They can investigate and hopefully track down the person who hurt you.

The defendant might have used their place of employment as a means to commit the abuse. For example, when a teacher abuses a student, the school might be included in a civil lawsuit. If a supervisor in an office abuses their subordinate, the company they work for might be implicated in the case. If the employer knew about the abuse or reasonably should have known, our sexual abuse attorneys have a better chance of holding them responsible alongside the abuser. It is not unusual for schools, churches, and other organizations to be sued for sexual abuse committed by employees.

How a Criminal Trial Might Affect Your Civil Sexual Abuse Case

Depending on when you report the abuse and whether the authorities can investigate, criminal charges might be assessed against the person who hurt you. Remember, criminal charges are more likely the sooner you report the abuse because the police may be better able to get the evidence needed for prosecutors to press charges. The longer you wait to come forward, as hard as it might be, the less likely the abuser will be held responsible in criminal court.

If criminal charges are assessed, a criminal trial may be scheduled and will likely take precedence over civil claims. This is not uncommon, and you should discuss the issue with an attorney. In many states, civil plaintiffs may have the statute of limitation for sexual abuse claims tolled while a related criminal trial is pending. This way, your cause of action will not remain valid and will not be time-barred.

You might have to wait before we can bring your civil claims to a courtroom, but this might not be a bad thing. If the defendant is found guilty in criminal court, their conviction may be used to support your claims in civil court. Additionally, a criminal conviction helps many victims find a sense of justice, and they may be better able to get closure and move on.

Finding Evidence and Preparing Your Civil Case for Sexual Abuse

When preparing your case, obtaining admissible evidence will be a main priority. We need enough evidence to meet our burden of proof. In a civil case, the burden of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, which means we must show it is more likely than not that the defendant is liable.

Witnesses might be an important part of our evidentiary strategy. Did anyone else know about the abuse? Did you confide in a friend about it? Did you report the abuse to anyone else, like someone at work? Maybe you know of other abuse victims who can corroborate your story. If there is anyone with personal knowledge about the abuse you suffered or other pertinent details about the case, we must find them and speak to them.

If you went to a doctor or hospital for injuries caused by sexual abuse, we should speak to the doctor who treated you and get copies of your medical records. Even if you did not disclose to the doctor that your injuries came from sexual abuse, records of the injuries might indicate as much.

If you went to the police right after being sexually abused, they might have taken evidence using what is often called a “rape kit.” Police rape kits involve forensic medical exams, usually performed by specially trained medical professionals, to find evidence of the abuse. They may have taken samples that include the defendant’s DNA, which can be extremely powerful evidence.

We might need you to testify, depending on what kind of evidence we have. For many, this is a very daunting task. Many victims relive the abuse on the witness stand. Although it is difficult, it might be necessary to secure civil justice.

Assessing Your Damages in Your Civil Sexual Abuse Case

While gathering evidence and planning legal strategies to prove your claims, we must also assess your damages. Your damages represent your injuries, losses, and painful experiences resulting directly from the abuse. While damages are unique to each plaintiff, certain types of damages are common and might apply in your case.

Economic Damages

Economic damages revolve around financial costs related to the abuse. In many cases, economic damages are not exactly substantial and might not represent significant compensation. For many, the main source of economic damages is medical bills from when they received treatment for abuse-related injuries. Some plaintiffs never seek treatment for injuries and might not have medical bills to claim.

Another possibility is that the abuse left you with deep emotional injuries that required costly mental health treatment, like therapy. You may claim the costs of therapy and psychiatric care, which might be a lot if you spent years working with mental health professionals. It is not uncommon for people to spend years in therapy because of sexual abuse.

Non-Economic Damages

Assessing your non-economic damages is crucial as they may make up the bulk of your damages and financial compensation. Non-economic damages stem from painful experiences such as physical pain, emotional distress, psychological injuries, humiliation, and more. Considering the deep psychological impact that sexual abuse often has on victims, these damages are likely significant. If you have not yet been evaluated by a psychiatrist or other mental health professional, we should have you meet with one as soon as possible.

The Civil Trial for Sexual Abuse Claims

Everything comes together in the trial, and it can be a very intimidating experience. Before your trial begins, we must navigate several pretrial hearings and procedures. There may be numerous hearings and meetings regarding the overall status of the case and whether the parties are ready to move forward. We might need more time to prepare, or the defendant can ask for more time before scheduling a trial date.

There will also be a time for the discovery phase. At this phase, we must exchange evidence with the defendant. This allows both sides to build the strongest cases possible. Discover may involve exchanging information and interviewing the opposing party’s witnesses. We can even interview the defendant.

In many cases, pretrial hearings and meetings involve settlement talks with the opposing party. They might offer a private settlement, hoping you agree to drop the lawsuit. It is entirely up to you whether you accept. If you do not, we can move forward with the trial.

While we might spend months or even years preparing a case, the trial is much shorter. Many are completed in only a few weeks. The trial is where we present all our evidence, question witnesses on the witness stand, cross-examine the defendant’s evidence and present arguments to the jury. Again, you might need to testify at your trial, as only you have certain details about the abuse.

Contact Our Sexual Abuse Lawyers for Assistance Now

Call The Law Office of Andrew Shubin at (814) 826-3586 and ask our sexual abuse lawyers for a free case evaluation to begin your civil case.