Civil Lawsuits Against Sexual Abuse Continue Following Powerful #MeToo Movement

Via America’s Lawyer: With the surging #METOO movement, finally perpetrators are being held accountable for their actions. Now organizations are finding out that turning a blind eye to this kind of criminal behavior comes with a very hefty price tag. The FEC is under fire for allowing campaign “dark money” to go uninvestigated by the watchdog group known as CREW. Android users are filing a lawsuit against Facebook for collecting and storing information from their personal cell phones.

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Over the past 20 years, victims of sexual assault and harassment have finally begun seeing their perpetrators face justice in the form of criminal prosecution, and large jury verdicts and settlements. With the surging #MeToo movement just last year, more than 200 powerful people, celebrities, politicians, CEOs and even college administrators have been the subject of sexual harassment or assault allegations, and finally they're being held accountable for their actions.

But while most of the media attention has been focused on the criminal aspect of sexual assault, there are plenty of civil lawsuits against organizations and institutions that helped to cover up years of abuse. Because we have to remember that it wasn't just the people committing the assault, but also the organizations that helped cover it up and prevent victims from coming forward to tell their stories.

One of the more highly publicized cases was the story of Larry Nassar, the former medical trainer at Michigan State University, who also worked with USA Gymnastics training Olympians. Nassar is currently serving out the beginning of his 300 year sentence after abusing young women for more than a decade. The institutions that employed Nassar have reached a $500 million settlement with his victims, because they simply chose to ignore the complaints against him.

The list is endless, with the Penn State, the Catholic church and the University of Southern California being just a few of the organizations that either covered up abuse or just chose to ignore it. But as more women and men come forward to expose their abusers, these organizations are finding out that turning a blind eye to this kind of criminal behavior comes with a very hefty price tag.

Joining me to talk about sexual assault litigation is attorney Kim Adams. Kim, most people probably understand the criminal aspect of what's happening, but they don't understand the civil litigation side. In general, tell us how these sexual harassment assault lawsuits are being filed, and where do they go after the filing?

You know, you're right. Most people understand criminal aspect; criminal conduct equals getting your liberties taken away. On the civil side, which often happens with sexual assault or sexual harassment cases, the victim is permitted to file an assault claim, which some might refer to as the swing, a battery claim, which others will refer to as the actual hit, and then intentional infliction of emotional distress for just outrageous conduct causing emotional distress.

So you've got a claim against that actual perpetrator. The problem is sometimes there's not any money there, right? Insurance policies aren't going to cover intentional acts. There are other often culprits involved, which you kind of alluded to. Institutions, schools, businesses, and so there's another arm of that claim. Those allegations normally are negligent hiring or supervision, where schools and/or other businesses and entities knew of a person's background and sort of put people in harm's way. Also, you might look at failure to protect the people. They knew that things were happening on their campus, criminal activity, and they failed to put someone there to protect them.

Then the third aspect of ways that you enter the civil system with sexual harassment would be against employers. There are allegations of quid pro quo.