Civil Suit for Victim After Sexual Assault
My question involves court procedures for the state of: Florida
My minor daughter was victimized (sexual assault, lewd act in presence of a minor) last year. The case (criminal) is now finally going to trial. My question is...Pending the result of the trial can she/we file suit against the offender to compensate her monetarily? I would like to have a little set aside for her in the event there are more emotional repercussions and she needs counseling or other assistance in the future.
Re: Civil Suit for Victim After Sexual Assault
Sure, a civil suit can be filed. But you'll want to sit down and talk it over not only with an attorney who specializes in such cases, but with a victim advocate from your local sexual assault program as well.
If this person is convicted, he won't be paying anytime soon (if ever). Hard to get a paycheck to make payments WITH if you're behind bars. You'll also have to weigh the ADDITIONAL emotional stress it'll put on the victim, to have to face him yet again after the criminal trial. In other words, to ATTEMPT to get money to set aside to deal with the trauma, you'll have to traumatize her MORE. And the rules in civil court are MUCH different, and the questioning can be much more brutal for the victim.
See this: http://www.aardvarc.org/victim/civilsuit.shtml