Do you need help? Call Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich & Ryan and let us guide and inform you of your options.
You may be an adult now, but that doesn’t erase what happened to you as a child.
Maybe you were 14, 15, 16, or 17 when a staff member at a juvenile detention center, residential treatment facility, or behavioral health program crossed a line.
You may have spent years trying not to think about it. You may have convinced yourself that what happened wasn’t “bad enough” to count as abuse. You may have been afraid nobody would believe you. Or you may have survived it and moved on because, at the time, you had no other choice.
Now you’re older, and you’re asking a different question: Can I do something about what happened to me?
In many circumstances, the answer may be yes.
Pennsylvania law provides survivors of childhood sexual abuse with significantly more time to pursue civil claims than many people realize. Depending on the circumstances, survivors may bring civil claims until age 55.
And the person who abused you may not be the only person who can be held responsible.
The facility itself may have failed to properly hire, supervise, monitor, or remove an employee who posed a danger to children.
If you were sexually abused while living in a juvenile detention center, residential treatment facility, or behavioral health program, a Philadelphia juvenile facility sexual abuse lawyer can help you determine whether you may have a civil claim and who may be legally responsible.
When people hear “sexual abuse,” they often picture a stranger committing a violent assault. Institutional sexual abuse can look very different.
The person who abused you may have been someone you saw every day. A counselor. A guard. A therapist. A teacher. A residential staff member. A medical provider. Someone whose job was supposed to involve caring for you.
The abuse may have involved:
A staff member doesn’t have to physically force you into a sexual encounter for the situation to be abusive.
When you’re a child in an institution, the power difference is enormous. The person may control your access to food, recreation, medication, phone calls, visitors, privileges, and other basic parts of daily life. They may also be the person who decides whether you’re labeled cooperative or difficult.
That power can be used to manipulate a child into believing that sexual behavior is normal, that the relationship is a secret, or that refusing will have consequences.
This is one of the most important things for survivors to understand: You may not have missed your opportunity to pursue a civil claim because you’re an adult now.
Pennsylvania allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to bring civil claims until age 55. That means someone who was abused at 15 and is now 28, 32, or 37 may still have legal options. The exact deadline and applicable law depend on the circumstances of the abuse and the potential defendants.
And there can be additional legal issues when the abuse occurred at a government-operated facility. Don’t assume that the passage of time means nothing can be done. You also don’t need to have kept a file folder documenting everything that happened.
Many survivors don’t have the facility records from their childhood. They may not remember every date. They may not know the employee’s current name. The facility may have changed ownership or closed entirely.
Those are issues an attorney can investigate.
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The employee who sexually abused an individual may be responsible for the assault.
But the facility may also have legal exposure if its own negligence helped create the conditions that allowed the abuse to occur.
For example, a facility may face a claim involving:
Facilities have a responsibility to take reasonable care when hiring people who will have access to vulnerable individuals.
That can include conducting appropriate background checks, reviewing employment history, investigating concerning references, and evaluating information that could indicate a person presents a risk to children.
If a facility puts someone in a position of authority over a child or young adult despite warning signs that should have been discovered, that may become important evidence in a civil claim.
A facility cannot protect individuals if it isn’t actually supervising the people responsible for their care.
Potential problems can include:
The question isn’t whether a particular employee committed abuse. It is also whether the facility had systems in place that should have prevented or detected it.
Sometimes an institution receives warning signs after an employee is hired.
A staff member may accumulate complaints. Another resident may report inappropriate behavior. Parents may raise concerns. Other employees may notice boundary violations.
If management ignores those warning signs and allows the employee to continue working, those records can become highly significant.
Pennsylvania has mandatory reporting requirements concerning suspected child abuse. A facility’s failure to properly report suspected abuse can become an important part of the evidence in a case.
Families should pay particular attention when they discover that staff members knew about allegations but failed to notify the appropriate authorities or attempted to handle serious allegations internally.
Sexual abuse isn’t always committed by an employee. A facility can also potentially face liability when another resident sexually assaults a child and staff knew, or reasonably should have known, that the individual faced a specific risk.
That might involve known threats, prior assaults, inadequate supervision, inappropriate housing assignments, or repeated warnings that were ignored.
The exact circumstances are important.
This can be one of the more complicated parts of an institutional sexual abuse case. Government agencies receive protection under Pennsylvania’s governmental immunity laws.
But Pennsylvania changed the law in 2019 to create an exception involving certain sexual abuse claims against state and local government entities when the injury was caused by the agency’s negligence.
The legislation also removed the six-month notice requirement that ordinarily applies to many claims against government entities.
You shouldn’t assume that governmental immunity automatically prevents you from bringing a claim.
At the same time, the exact nature of the claim and identity of the government entity matter. An attorney needs to examine the circumstances before determining whether the statutory exception applies.
You don’t need a criminal conviction before pursuing a civil claim.
Criminal and civil cases are separate proceedings with different standards of proof.
A prosecutor may decline to bring charges. Police may not have enough evidence to make an arrest. Charges may be dismissed. The perpetrator may never be identified.
None of those outcomes automatically determines whether a civil claim exists.
A civil case can examine not only what the individual perpetrator did, but also whether the facility negligently allowed the abuse to happen.
Maybe you’ve spent years telling yourself that the past is the past.
Maybe you didn’t have the ability to do anything about it when you were a teenager.
You do have choices now.
If you were sexually abused in a juvenile detention center, residential treatment facility, or behavioral health program, you may be able to pursue a civil claim against the person who abused you and, depending on the circumstances, the institution that failed to protect you.
You don’t have to know exactly what happened behind the scenes. You don’t have to know which records still exist. And you don’t have to decide today whether you’re ready to file a lawsuit.
You can start by finding out what your legal options are.
Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich & Ryan represents survivors of child sexual abuse and institutional abuse throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Reach out for a free, confidential consultation.
