The criminal justice system often fails victims of sexual abuse. In these situations, you may be able to hold your abuser responsible through a civil lawsuit. Survivors of sexual abuse have important rights under the law. Many of these rights have only been enacted recently, and so a lot of people don’t know about them. A DC sexual abuse lawyer can help you understand your rights and bring those responsible for your injuries to justice.
You Are Not Alone. The Scope of Sexual Abuse is Vast.
Many victims of sexual abuse feel isolated and alone because it is so hard to talk openly about what happened to them. But you are not alone.
Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children are victims of sexual abuse each year. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), this includes:
- 80,600 prison inmates
- 18,900 members of the military
- 60,000 children
- 433,648 Americans age 12 and older
RAINN further reports that every 73 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted.
As shocking as these numbers are, they may represent just a fraction of the overall problem. The overwhelming majority of sexual assaults are never reported to the police. Just 230 out of every 1,000 rape cases are reported — or approximately 23% of all sexual assaults.
Filing a Lawsuit for Sex Abuse in the District of Columbia
If you have been sexually abused, you may be able to file a lawsuit against the person who hurt you, or against the institution that looked the other way while the abuse occurred. Too often, abusers are enabled by their employers or other groups who are more interested in protecting themselves than in keeping vulnerable members safe. An attorney can fight for justice on your behalf.
Sexual abuse cases are a type of personal injury claim. To win any personal injury case, you need to prove four things:
- Duty: the defendant (the individual or corporation that you sue) had an obligation to avoid acting in a negligent manner. Negligence means to a failure act with the care that a reasonably prudent person would in the same or a similar situation.
- Breach: the defendant violated that duty of care
- Causation: the defendant’s violation or breach caused injuries to the plaintiff (the injured person)
- Damages: the plaintiff suffered losses as a result.
For example, if you were sexually abused as a child by a youth pastor at your church, you may want to pursue a lawsuit against the church for its role in your abuse (such as if the church knew that this pastor was sexually abusing children, but just moved him to a different location to cover it up). To succeed, your attorney will need to show that the church owed you a duty of care, that the church breached that duty of care, and that you suffered harm as a direct result of its actions (or inactions).
These claims can be complicated and are best pursued with the skill and specialized knowledge of an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse. The institutions that allowed sexual abuse to occur — or protected the abuser from consequences — will fight back against these lawsuits. Using both state statutes and regulations, as well as case law, your lawyer will advocate for a complete recovery of money damages.
In some cases, the lawsuit is based on a theory of intentional conduct. For example, you may sue the person who committed the sexual abuse on a theory of battery, or a theory of intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). To win an IIED case, your attorney will need to prove:
- Extreme and outrageous conduct on the part of the defendant which
- Intentionally or recklessly causes the plaintiff severe emotional distress.
The battery is similar. A lot of laypeople use the word “assault” for what the law calls “battery,” which is an unauthorized touching of another person.
Both battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress are different in that they use a different legal theory than negligence cases. A skilled lawyer can help you determine if you are able to file a lawsuit for intentional conduct. Using past court cases involving IIED — known as case law or precedent — your attorney will analyze your options for filing this type of claim.
In many sexual abuse lawsuits, the injuries that a plaintiff suffered may be psychological in nature — such as a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or anxiety. Even if you suffered no direct physical harm, you can still recover for your losses.
Compensation in a personal injury lawsuit may include lost wages, present and future medical treatment, and even lost earning potential (for example, if your PTSD from the sexual abuse has left you unable to work). In addition, you may recover for intangible injuries like pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. Your attorney can evaluate your economic losses as well as your non-economic losses to determine if they are compensable as part of a sexual abuse claim.
Civil lawsuits have one advantage over criminal cases for protecting victims of sexual abuse. The standard of legal proof in a civil case is called the preponderance of the evidence. The civil standard is also sometimes known as the 51 percent rule or the “more-likely-than-not” rule or the “greater weight of the evidence” rule. This means that the plaintiff, the injured person acting through his or her attorneys, does not have to prove the case “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which is the standard for criminal cases. Instead, the plaintiff has to tilt the scales of justice only a little bit in the plaintiff’s favor to be entitled to a verdict.
How a New D.C. Law Gives Victims More Time to File Sexual Abuse Lawsuits
In both civil and criminal cases, there is a deadline for filing a legal action. This is known as the statute of limitations. If you file a claim after the statute of limitations has passed, the case will likely be thrown out by the judge.
Statutes of limitations or legal deadlines were put into state laws — and every state’s deadlines are a little different — for what are often good reasons. Over time, memories fade and evidence may be lost. In addition, the theory says that people should be able to move forward with their lives without the threat of a lawsuit or a criminal prosecution hanging over their heads indefinitely. In this way, statutes of limitations provide some certainty.
Yet as recent lawsuits against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America have demonstrated, victims of sexual abuse — particularly those who were abused as children — don’t always remember what happened to them until much later. This may be a function of trauma and is something that the brain does to protect us. While the exact cause of this phenomenon isn’t known, experts on memory agree that having delayed memory or even dissociation (where memory cannot be recalled for a period of time) may be a direct result of childhood abuse.
Furthermore, victims frequently delay reporting abuse – especially minors – due to fears that they won’t be believed or that they will be blamed for having done something wrong.
Recognizing this reality, states across the country have amended their statute of limitation laws to allow victims of sexual abuse (particularly child sex abuse) more time to file claims. In Washington, D.C., the 2018 Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations Amendment Act allows sexual assault victims to file a lawsuit (1) for abuse that occurred before the victim turned 35, up to age 40, or 5 years after the victim knew or reasonably should have known of the sexual abuse, whichever is later; or (2) for abuse that occurred when the victim was 35 or older, 5 years from when the abuse occurred, or 5 years after the victim knew or reasonably should have known of the sexual abuse, whichever is later. After the passage of this law, individuals whose lawsuits were previously barred by the statute of limitations have until May 3, 2021, to file a lawsuit utilizing these rules.
An attorney can help you determine if you are able to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations period. One of the most important elements of these claims is determining when you knew or reasonably should have known of the abuse. Your lawyer can use both this law as well as decisions in similar cases to argue that your claim is valid. Your lawyer can also get testimony from expert witnesses to prove that repressed or incomplete memories of abuse are common and does not mean that your memories are not real. This will help to overcome arguments that you should have known about the abuse earlier, or that you are making up your claim.
This expanded statute of limitations is an important step for victims’ rights. It will empower more individuals to seek justice against their abusers, and the institutions that may have enabled abuse.
If You’re A Victim of Sexual Abuse, We Can Help
Victims and survivors of sexual abuse have options. Even if their perpetrator is long dead, or if the police won’t file criminal charges in their case, they still may be able to file a civil lawsuit to hold their abuser — and/or their abusers’ enablers — financially liable for the abuser’s crimes. A compassionate, experienced sexual abuse lawyer can help.
Patrick Malone & Associates is dedicated to helping residents of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia who have been injured by the negligence or intentional acts of another. We offer highly skilled legal representation as well as guidance throughout the legal process. To learn more or to schedule a free consultation with a member of our team, contact us today at 202-742-1500, or email us at any time.
