Tacoma Sexual & Physical Abuse Attorneys

Sexual abuse and physical abuse can change your life. With time and resources, though, recovery is possible, and justice for your physical, mental, and emotional injuries can aid in that journey.

Washington State law provides victims with a path for getting financial compensation from the abuser and those who enabled them, including school districts, group homes, and government agencies like CPS, DCYF, and DSHS that have a duty to prevent abuse. A Tacoma sexual abuse attorney from Connelly Law can guide you through this process and fight for justice and accountability for past abuse–no matter when it occurred.

Contact us to discuss your situation with an attorney for sexual abuse victims from our compassionate and skilled legal team today.

Most people think the legal liability for sexual abuse falls on the abuser. While sexual abuse perpetrators can be brought to justice in the criminal courts, that process does not compensate the victims and does not provide any accountability for the individuals and institutions who fail to protect the victims.

Importantly, people and businesses who enabled the abuse, or failed to intervene to stop it, can be held liable for the harms caused by that abuse. For example, school districts may be held liable for the acts of their teachers, coaches, other students, and volunteers; and the State of Washington (CPS, DSHS, DCYF) may be liable for failing to protect children and vulnerable adults; nursing homes may be liable for their workers’ actions and for other residents who perpetrate assaults, and churches may be liable for clergy abuse.

This second form of liability is important because the abuser might not have the resources to compensate a victim. However, you may have a claim against another person or entity with the money to pay for your losses.

As a first matter, sexual abuse is both a crime and a tort. Torts are private wrongs. For example, a crash victim may have a tort claim against the negligent driver who crashed into them and caused a personal injury.

You can pursue a tort claim against the abuser and any facilitators, regardless of whether any of the following happened:

• You reported the abuse, or you never notified the police
• The abuser was convicted, acquitted, or never charged with a crime

You may even have a claim against the abuser’s estate and any surviving enablers after the abuser’s death. In short, tort claims are independent of criminal investigations, and a Tacoma sexual abuse attorney from Connelly Law can analyze your situation to identify all your legal options.

With this in mind, take a closer look at how the law provides the following two theories for holding parties responsible for sexual abuse:

Intentional Torts

An intentional tort occurs when the other party intended the harmful action. Two intentional torts we can use against a sexual abuser are battery and assault.

A battery occurs when another party intentionally makes harmful or offensive contact with you. Battery can result from any unwanted contact, including sex, groping, or other forms of offensive touching. To prove battery, we must show that the other party intended to make contact with you that they knew to be harmful or offensive.

An assault happens when the other party puts you in fear of an imminent battery. Thus, if someone tried to grab you sexually but you dodged them, they may have committed an assault.

We can typically pursue assault or battery claims against the abuser or anyone who physically assisted in the abuse. For example, our Tacoma, WA, doctor sexual abuse attorneys can assert a battery claim against a physician who deceived a patient into believing that they were performing a legitimate procedure when they were, in fact, abusing them.

Negligence

Negligence claims are used when the other party caused your injuries through neglect or carelessness. Specifically, we must prove the following four elements for negligence:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty
• Loss
• Causal link between the breach and loss

Certain negligent acts can lead to sexual abuse.

Examples of such acts include the following:

• Negligent supervision of the abuser
• Failure to warn people of the risk posed by the abuser
• Negligent training of those monitoring the abuser
• Negligent security in the place where the abuser committed the abuse
• Deficient policies that allowed the abuse to occur
• Failure to report abuse that occurred
• Failure to take action against the abuser to stop the abuse

Thus, our Tacoma clergy sexual abuse attorneys could bring a claim against a church. This claim could include evidence that it transferred the alleged abuser to a different location after learning of sexual abuse without warning anyone about the prior allegations.

Our attorneys can seek compensation for economic and non-economic losses in a sexual abuse claim. Economic losses include the costs of the physical, mental, and emotional injuries the abuse caused, such as medical bills, counseling expenses, and earnings losses. Non-economic losses include the physical and psychological pain and suffering caused by the sexual abuse.

Our attorneys excel in tackling complex legal issues and advocating for victims of sexual or physical abuse.

Importantly, the law entitles you to both past and future losses. For example, our Tacoma child sexual abuse attorneys can pursue compensation for the lifetime costs of counseling and therapy that a young victim might require, as well as the decades of anguish they will endure. This means finding a “sexual abuse attorney near me” could help secure your child’s future finances and mental health in these types of cases.

A sexual abuse lawyer in Tacoma from our team can help you stand up to your abuser and obtain the justice you deserve. Contact Connelly Law online or by phone to discuss your situation and find out how we can serve as your tireless advocate today.