Sexual Abuse
Hendell Law Firm represents both child and adult victims of sexual abuse in pursuit of financial recovery for their injuries throughout Virginia. Many people do not know it, but survivors of sexual abuse can bring a civil action to recover money damages for their physical and emotional injuries. Just as with participation in a criminal case, however, suing for money damages can re-traumatize victims and make them feel like they, and not their aggressor, are the one on trial. We work to protect our clients and their identities to the maximum extent possible while advancing their interests.
Sexual abuse occurs in a wide variety of settings and presents unique legal challenges to recovery. For example, the parties responsible for sexual abuse occurring in churches and private schools may claim charitable immunity for their inactions in failing to detect or prevent an employee’s misconduct. Under current Virginia precedent, employers may not be responsible for their employees’ intentional acts committed within the course and scope of employment, such as when attendants in nursing homes sexually abuse the patients under their care. Exclusions in insurance policies may bar recovery even when no other doctrine of immunity or vicarious liability stands in the way. Hendell Law Firm takes care to analyze every possible source of recovery, as well as every defense or immunity, before engaging with the sexual assailant and their enablers and employers.
Sometimes the emotional suffering and future care needs of a sexual abuse victim are too complex for their treating healthcare providers to cover in their testimony. In such cases, sexual abuse attorney Thomas M. Hendell engages the assistance of leading experts in the fields of forensic psychiatry and psychology, as well as life care planners, to help tell the victim’s whole story and explain what compensation they deserve to afford medically necessary future care and treatment.
Statutes of limitation can be complex in sexual abuse cases, and victims are not always eager to report sexual abuse immediately after the abuse occurs, or to file a lawsuit. Different time limitations may apply to lawsuits against individual abusers versus their corporate employers, depending on the year the abuse occurred. Different time limitations apply to abuse suffered by adults versus children. Our Charlottesville and Central Virginia sexual abuse attorney can help you determine if you have a right of action.