Over my career, I’ve helped many, many survivors of sexual abuse get the compensation they deserve. One of the first issues often raised is to what degree a sexual abuse civil claim will become public. There are often feelings of embarrassment, shame, and stigma around sexual abuse, and understandably, many survivors don’t want to air their experiences publicly. Many survivors may not have revealed the abuse even to close friends or family and would prefer not to. I totally understand this, and I work hard to protect the confidentiality and the well-being of survivors. There’s a couple of ways to maintain the confidentiality. The first is to try to negotiate financial compensation without the need to file a public lawsuit. This approach ensures privacy is maintained. Often, given the sensitive nature of the allegations, many defendants and abusers are similarly keen to work towards keeping things from being aired publicly. But if that’s not possible, then a lawsuit is required, and if that’s the case, there are ways to ensure that you’re not named publicly on that document.
Because a lawsuit itself is a public document that typically sets out the names of the parties involved, however, in the context of sexual abuse claims, it’s possible to remove the name of the survivor from the document and identify them by initials only. This is permitted by the courts because of the highly sensitive and the private nature of the allegations. The bottom line is this: unlike perhaps criminal sexual abuse cases, in a civil case the victim has total control.
You can maintain confidentiality or privacy as much or as little as you want. If you have a sexual abuse claim but you’ve been afraid to come forward because you want to maintain your privacy and your confidentiality, then please give me a call to discuss. There are many ways you can get the compensation you deserve while still respecting your privacy.
