Injury Law: Child Sexual Abuse

Personal injury lawyer

A civil lawsuit that is based on child sexual abuse can be brought under many different legal theories, and of course in some situations both the perpetrator and the perpetrators’ employee or a third party can be sued by the child or the child’s parents. Talk to your personal injury lawyer, today, about your options for filing for your child sexual abuse and injury, find out which legal theory covers your family and your needs.

The criminal law process has the prosecution of the perpetrator by the state, and oftentimes this means that incarceration and other penalties are a possibility. However, the criminal process does not involve monetary compensation for sexual abuse victim or the victim’s family, but they can see the perpetrator in civil court to receive monetary damages after the criminal trial has been completed.

Depending upon the application of a complex world it is called collateral estoppel, the plaintiff may actually win a civil trial if the defendant has been convicted for the same criminal acts at a criminal trial. It more or less proves without a doubt that the person that is being brought to civil court has a conviction and a history of doing this to this defendant.

But if the defendant was not convicted in a criminal trial, a civil plaintiff that is suing for the exact same month on illegal acts may not get a successful case, or they may still get a successful case. In a civil trial, the plaintiff suing for the wrongful and illegal acts must be able to share that is more likely than not the defendant was indeed committing sexual abuse of someone, and the prosecution in a criminal trial must show beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed these acts, and more likely than not gives you more leeway than beyond reasonable doubt. In a civil case there is no way or reason to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt the defendant was guilty in order to find them liable for the crime.

But you might also have questions about who can sue, especially if it is a child that has undergone sexual abuse and you are suing them. A personal injury lawyer will be able to tell you that either the child or the child’s leader caregiver whether that is their birth parents are not can sue for the child for sexual abuse. Oftentimes the child is going to be represented by a parent or another guardian, they will be allowed to sue for physical, emotional and other harm caused by the abuse. The child’s guardians and parents may even be able to sue for their own emotional distress and other emotional damage stemming from learning about the abuse.

Childhood sexual abuse is a very personal undertaking which requires time intact, and sometimes survivors are well into adulthood before they are ready to go forth about childhood abuse that they suffered of sexual nature in your personal injury lawyer will be able to tell you that your stay at the statute of limitations or not, because many states have passed laws specifically regarding childhood sexual abuse to allow for it to be child later in life.