Compass Law Group, LLP is an esteemed team of personal injury attorneys with excellent credentials, broad experience, and a well-earned reputation for commitment to justice. We have a history of winning substantial damages for our clients throughout the Los Angeles area. Our sexual assault civil lawsuit attorney is fully prepared to fight for your rights if you have suffered a sexual assault and help victims across the greater LA area including Beverly Hills and Bell Gardens.
Sexual assault is a terrible crime that typically results in long-term negative consequences for victims and those who love them. For countless generations, victims of sexual assault have been disbelieved, dismissed, or even blamed for the physical and psychological harm they have suffered during and after sexual assaults. Now, in the era of #MeToo, in some very public cases in the United States, claims of sexual assault are being given serious attention, whether or not the assailants are criminally prosecuted or found guilty of a crime.
Why Choose Compass Law Group, LLP
If you have been through the trauma of a sexual assault, it is important to be aware that whether or not your attacker is arrested, tried, or convicted, you have every right to file a lawsuit and recover damages. This means that even if the police don’t consider your case prosecutable, or if your assailant has plea-bargained to a lesser offense or been found not guilty in a court of law, Compass Law Group will evaluate your case at no charge. If we find that you have a viable case for a civil lawsuit, we will use our well-developed skills to bring you the justice you deserve.
How Sexual Assault Is Defined
For purposes of a civil lawsuit, a sexual assault is defined as any non-consensual act of a sexual nature, including:
- Rape
- Sexual abuse of a child
- Groping (sexual battery)
- Indecent exposure
The person who sexually assaults you may be a doctor or another healthcare worker, a teacher or camp counselor, a religious leader, an employer, a peer, or even a family member.
Damages Compass Law Group May Recover in a Sexual Assault Civil Lawsuit
Depending on the particular circumstances of your case, we may be able to recover damages for any or all of the following:
- Medical costs
- Psychological counseling for PTSD, anxiety, phobia, depression
- Lost income, present and future
- Pain and suffering
- Scarring or permanent injury
- Loss of enjoyment of life
We May Be Able to Recover Punitive Damages, Too
Because a sexual assault is an intentional, often malicious, act, our sexual assault attorneys are more likely to be able to obtain punitive as well as compensatory damages (like those mentioned above) than they might be in other personal injury cases. Punitive damages are designed both to punish the offender and to prevent similar misconduct by other individuals.
There are, however, strict standards that apply to our ability to win punitive damages. In California, Civil Code 3294 allows plaintiffs to recover punitive damages only if we can prove that the defendant acted with:
- Oppression — subjecting the plaintiff to cruel and unjust hardship, disregarding his/her rights
- Fraud — depriving the plaintiff of legal rights through misrepresentation, deceit, or concealment of a material fact
- Malice — intending to cause injury with conscious disregard of the safety of others
When a Third Party Is Held Liable for a Sexual Assault
Though when we think of a sexual assault we typically imagine a victim and an assailant, there are many cases in which another person or entity may also be held liable for the attack. This is important to know since in order to obtain significant damages the defendant has to have relatively deep pockets and many sex offenders do not have any financial resources.
Though more complex to litigate, cases in which someone in a supervisory, vetting, or maintenance capacity can be held accountable for a sexual assault frequently occur.
If the negligence of a third party is responsible for making the assault possible, or even probable, that party may be targeted in a civil lawsuit. Compass Law Group civil litigators have an in-depth knowledge of California law and the practiced strategies to bring successful lawsuits against third-parties to sexual assaults, such as:
- Building management companies that fail to keep their hallways or garages properly illuminated or their exits properly marked
- School systems that fail to properly vet teachers who turn out to be predatory pedophiles
- Parents who serve alcohol or permit drugs to be used at unsupervised parties in their homes
- Employers who permit sexual harassment at the workplace to go unacknowledged and/or unpunished
The opportunity to sue this kind of third party may be your salvation if you have suffered substantially due to a sexual assault and your assailant is never caught, cannot be identified, or is a person without the necessary funds to pay you the damages you are entitled to receive.
Contact Compass Law Group Today to Pursue a Sexual Assault Civil Lawsuit
You need not suffer in silence any longer. Compass Law Group’s competent attorneys are here to listen to the specifics of your case and defend your right to obtain the compensation you deserve. You have been through enough. Let us take over and fight for you. We truly want to provide you with strong support as well as the best in legal representation.
Contact our experienced Los Angeles sexual assault civil lawsuit attorney today to schedule an initial consultation.
We’re old enough to have the necessary experience, yet young enough to use the most cutting-edge technology and tactics, and are determined enough to fight and outsmart the other side, every time.
