Atlanta Attorney for Rape & Sexual Assault Victims in Georgia

Atlanta Attorney for Victims of Rape & Sexual Assault

A Compassionate Atlanta Attorney for Victims of Rape & Sexual Assault

What Are Rape & Sexual Assault Cases in Georgia?

Sexual assault is arguably the worst crime one can have committed against them. It leaves lifelong damage that a victim is constantly suffering from. Even as physical wounds fade, the mental anguish lasts. Sexual assault cases are among the most sensitive that an attorney can handle. You need and deserve an attorney who will be empathetic and aggressive on your behalf.

Victims’ advocacy and assistance non-profit RAINN reports that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men in the U.S. have been sexually assaulted – a new victim every 98 seconds. Data from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations shows that in a single recent year, law enforcement agencies statewide documented more than 2,600 reports of rape and sexual assault.

Atlanta attorneys for rape and sexual assault victims know these are low estimates. Even when offenses are reported, taken seriously, and investigated, convictions are rare – about 5 out of every 1,000 arrests, according to RAINN.

Criminal courts are not a victim’s only legal recourse. Businesses, managers, and owners of property where assaults occur can also be held accountable if evidence shows there was an unreasonable risk of danger to the victim about which the defendant was aware (or should have been) and failed to address.

Proving Negligence & Causation in Sexual Assault Cases in Georgia

Many times, civil sexual assault claims aren’t filed directly against the abuser/attacker. Instead, they are filed against other entities or individuals who failed in their responsibility to protect the victim. Some examples of this include:

  • Businesses like hotels, gas stations, or nightclubs that fail to provide adequate security to guests.
  • Workplaces that fail to address repeated claims of sexual harassment, threats, or assault.
  • Schools that fail to protect students from sexual abuse or assault.

Negligent security means the failure to provide a reasonable level of security in response to a known level of threat/danger.

It is reasonable to expect the owner of your apartment building to provide a door that locks with a deadbolt, or for the owner of a hotel to secure the hotel with video footage, and perhaps a security guard. If you can prove that the owner of the property breached the duty of care owed to you by failing to provide reasonable security, and that the lack of security contributed to the incident of sexual assault, the property owner may be held partially liable for your damages.

In order to establish that another’s negligence caused or contributed to your injuries, your attorney will seek to prove four elements:

  • The defendant owed you a duty of care.
  • The defendant breached the duty of care owed to you through an act of negligence.
  • The breach of the duty of care was the legal cause of your injuries.
  • The plaintiff suffered damages (losses) as a result of the accident.

If you are the victim of sexual assault that occurred in an apartment complex, hotel/motel, office building, parking lot, or another area where negligent security may have contributed to the act of assault, you may be entitled to pursue a claim for fair and adequate compensation.

Compensation and Damages Recoverable in Rape and Sexual Assault Cases

Serious injuries occur anytime a person is the victim of rape or sexual assault. You will need extensive medical care, or even long-term care after an assault. Fortunately, you may be able to recover some of those losses, including:

  • Medical expenses, including emergency care and ongoing treatments
  • Lost wages
  • Reduced or loss of earning capacity
  • Long term disability
  • Property damage
  • Pain and suffering, including emotional injuries
  • Diminished quality of life

If you or a loved one has been badly injured due to a sexual assault and would like to discuss what possible damages you could recover, contact Apolinsky & Associates, LLC, for a case evaluation.

Types of Sexual Assault Cases We Handle

  • Premises Liability Case Icon
    Premises Liability

    O.C.G.A. 51-3-1 states that landowners owe invitees a duty of protection against violent crime on the premises, including rape and sexual assault. Victims of sexual assault may be liable for damages from a property owner.

    Read More

  • Apartment Complexes Case Icon
    Apartment Complexes

    Apartment complexes have a duty of care to make sure they’re reasonably safe for lawful guests. If you’ve been the victim of a rape or sexual assault, the apartment complex where it occurred may be legally responsible.

    Read More

  • Parking Lots/Garages Case Icon
    Parking Lots/Garages

    Late at night, parking lots and parking garages can be dangerous places. Victims of rape or sexual assault in parking lots or garages may be entitled to compensation due to negligent security.

    Read More

  • Gas Stations Case Icon
    Gas Stations

    Gas stations must provide a reasonable amount of safety to those on their premises. If you have been a victim of rape or sexual assault at a gas station, an experienced personal injury attorney can review the details and determine your compensation case.

    Read More

  • Malls and Shopping Centers Case Icon
    Malls and Shopping Centers

    If you have been a victim of sexual assault in a mall or shopping center, a personal injury attorney can help you to achieve compensation.

    Read More

  • Office Buildings Case Icon
    Office Buildings

    Sexual assaults at office buildings aren’t as common as some other venues, but when they do happen, the results are just as devastating. Victims may be entitled to compensation through a premises liability claim.

    Read More

  • Hotels/Motels Case Icon
    Hotels/Motels

    Hotels and motels owe a duty of care to protect their patrons from foreseeable threats to safety. Victims of rape and sexual assault deserve financial compensation equivalent to the full value of their physical and emotional losses.

    Read More

  • College Campuses Case Icon
    College Campuses

    If a college or university failed to exercise reasonable care in discovering and protecting against prior sexual assaults on campus, the school can be considered negligent and be held liable.

    Read More

Types of Sexual Assault Cases We Handle

  • Premises Liability Case Icon
    Premises Liability

    O.C.G.A. 51-3-1 states that landowners owe invitees a duty of protection against violent crime on the premises, including rape and sexual assault. Victims of sexual assault may be liable for damages from a property owner.

    Read More

  • Apartment Complexes Case Icon
    Apartment Complexes

    Apartment complexes have a duty of care to make sure they’re reasonably safe for lawful guests. If you’ve been the victim of a rape or sexual assault, the apartment complex where it occurred may be legally responsible.

    Read More

  • Parking Lots/Garages Case Icon
    Parking Lots/Garages

    Late at night, parking lots and parking garages can be dangerous places. Victims of rape or sexual assault in parking lots or garages may be entitled to compensation due to negligent security.

    Read More

  • Gas Stations Case Icon
    Gas Stations

    Gas stations must provide a reasonable amount of safety to those on their premises. If you have been a victim of rape or sexual assault at a gas station, an experienced personal injury attorney can review the details and determine your compensation case.

    Read More

  • Malls and Shopping Centers Case Icon
    Malls and Shopping Centers

    If you have been a victim of sexual assault in a mall or shopping center, a personal injury attorney can help you to achieve compensation.

    Read More

  • Office Buildings Case Icon
    Office Buildings

    Sexual assaults at office buildings aren’t as common as some other venues, but when they do happen, the results are just as devastating. Victims may be entitled to compensation through a premises liability claim.

    Read More

  • Hotels/Motels Case Icon
    Hotels/Motels

    Hotels and motels owe a duty of care to protect their patrons from foreseeable threats to safety. Victims of rape and sexual assault deserve financial compensation equivalent to the full value of their physical and emotional losses.

    Read More

  • College Campuses Case Icon
    College Campuses

    If a college or university failed to exercise reasonable care in discovering and protecting against prior sexual assaults on campus, the school can be considered negligent and be held liable.

    Read More

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Atlanta Rape & Sexual Assault Lawsuit FAQs

I’ve Been Raped: What Should I do?

When an act of sexual assault occurs, you should immediately report the sexual assault to the police and other appropriate parties (i.e. the owner of the property where the assault occurred). The police are responsible for investigating and reporting the incident. The state is responsible for bringing criminal charges against the perpetrator, if appropriate. In addition to this, you may file a civil lawsuit for damages directly against the at-fault party. However, it is important to recognize that this may only be a viable option if the individual who sexually assaulted you maintains a level of personal wealth that makes such a claim worth pursuing. Often, this is not the case. As Atlanta injury attorneys, we make it a point to examine all possible angles. In these situations, we look carefully at the potential for a civil injury claim under Georgia’s premises liability laws, O.C.G.A. 51-3-1.

What is Negligent Security and How Does it Apply to Rape & Sexual Assault Cases?

If you were sexually assaulted on a property such as a hotel, in a parking lot, or at an apartment building, you may also have a case against the owner of the property if you can prove that negligent security contributed to your injuries. Negligent security means the failure to provide a reasonable level of security in response to the known level of threat/danger.

For example, it is reasonable to expect the owner of your apartment building to provide a door that locks with a deadbolt, or for the owner of a hotel to secure the hotel with video footage, and perhaps a security guard. If you can prove that the owner of the property breached the duty of care owed to you by failing to provide reasonable security, and that the lack of security contributed to the incident of sexual assault, the property owner may be held partially liable for your damages.

What is Third-Party Liability in Rape & Sexual Assault Cases?

The concept of third-party liability for sex crimes can seem foreign at first glance because it involves accountability for a crime someone else committed. However, these are civil and not criminal matters. It’s not about “guilt” or “innocence.” It’s about negligence, which is proven by the lower standard of preponderance of the evidence, as opposed to the beyond reasonable doubt standard in criminal cases.

The difference is why civil claims can prevail when criminal cases cannot. Take, for example, the high-profile case against Bill Cosby. He was accused of sexual assault over a period of decades by more than 60 women. One of those reported the alleged incident to police shortly after it happened in 2004. Investigators concluded that the evidence was insufficient to file criminal charges, but the victim later secured a $3.4 million civil settlement from Cosby. Of course, more than a dozen years later, when a flood of other victims came forward, investigators revisited that 2004 claim, filing felony charges just before the statute of limitations expired. Cosby was later convicted of three felony sex crimes and sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison. But even when the conviction was overturned in 2021 (due to a technicality based on a previous plea agreement prosecutors signed), the civil case was unaffected. The proceedings in the criminal case were entirely separate from the civil claims.

The recourse of a civil claim is especially important for survivors of rape and sexual assault, given that arrests are made in less than 6 percent of all estimated sex crimes. Per a Washington Post analysis of federal data, only 1.1 percent of all estimated sexual offenses are referred for prosecution, and less than 1 percent of the total end in felony conviction. This is partly due to the fact that rapes and sexual assaults are so vastly underreported. However, they are also notoriously difficult to prove under rigid criminal justice standards absent physical evidence or witnesses.  For many survivors of rape and sexual assault, civil litigation is their only means to justice.

Who Can Be Sued For Third-Party Liability In Georgia Sexual Assault Cases?

The Cosby case is an example of how civil law allows victims of sex crimes to pursue claims for intentional torts directly against a perpetrator. However, this is not always a worthwhile route, due to the fact that many sexual offenders and predators are not independently wealthy (and no insurer is going to extend coverage for an intentional criminal act). That is why injury lawyers often turn their primary focus onto third parties, accused not of a crime but of negligence by way of some failure to protect the plaintiff or vet/supervise the defendant.

Usually, Atlanta sex crimes litigation against third parties involves a property owner or a management company that breached a duty of care to protect the victim, allowing a perpetrator an opportunity to commit a crime that otherwise may not have existed. These are premises liability claims. Property owners – and businesses especially – owe anyone lawfully on site a duty of care to maintain it in a reasonably safe condition and address known or foreseeable risks. The potential for risk can be deemed foreseeable if there is a history of substantially similar crimes on site.

One example of a premises liability sex crimes case was the 1997 Georgia Court of Appeals matter of Doe v. Briargate Apartments, Inc. The plaintiff was beaten, raped, and robbed inside her apartment by an intruder who entered through a second-story window. The victim filed a claim of third-party liability against the landlord of the property, alleging inadequate security and failure to maintain the apartment, which gave her rapist an easier attack route. Although the court affirmed summary judgment favoring the apartment complex on the maintenance issue, it reversed on the claim of inadequate security. The plaintiff herself had been targeted for violence at the same site before, when another man broke into her home, assaulted her, and robbed her. The crime was reported both to the police and to the apartment complex managers. The defense tried to argue the two crimes weren’t “substantially similar” for purposes of establishing the foreseeability of the second attack because the plaintiff did not report being sexually assaulted in the first. The court rejected that argument, further noting that security on site had been hired to protect property, not resident safety.

In addition to premises liability, Georgia sexual assault injury claims can also be filed for things like negligent hiring or retention of the perpetrator as an employee, or failure to supervise the plaintiff or attacker when there was a duty to do so.

Sometimes third parties have a special relationship to the victim (i.e., daycare providers, schools, sports or recreational leagues, religious institutions, corrections and detention facilities, cruise lines), that results in a higher standard of care. If an attack occurred while the perpetrator was working or an attack was somehow facilitated by the job, employers might be held vicariously liable (meaning they weren’t negligent, but under certain circumstances can be held responsible for an employee’s negligence/criminal acts).

What Is The Georgia Statute Of Limitations To Bring Forward A Sexual Assault Civil Injury Claim?

Under GA Code § 9-3-33, the statute of limitations holds that victims of sexual assault in Georgia have only two years to bring forward personal injury claims. After those two years, the courts will dismiss your claim as the statute of limitations has run out. Sometimes, insurance companies will engage in stalling techniques to run out the clock and avoid paying you anything. For this reason and others, victims should retain an experienced and dedicated personal injury attorney skilled in sexual assault injury cases to advocate on their behalf.