My question involves injury or loss that occurred in the state of: Virginia.
In 1990, my daughter was 4 years old. I placed her in a home daycare that was licensed by the county and the state of VA. I toured the woman's home and inquired about who lived there and was told it was her, her two small children, and her husband.
2 weeks later, my daughter came home and told me what happened. She was able to describe the incident in such detail that it allowed much good evidence to be collected later that night when the man was arrested.
The perpetrator was the 27 year old nephew of the daycare provider who she later admitted to police was living in the home. On the day of the incident, she left my daughter alone with the man while she took her own children and went shopping.
State of VA requires as part of licensing that all people in the home are reported and background checks conducted. This is for the safety of the children. The provider did not report him as living there, nor did she disclose the information to me.
The man was charged with sexual assault of a minor child but they were going to drop the charge down to lewd and lacivious behavior because they only had DNA evidence on her clothing and a towel. A rape kit was done and thankfully my daughter was not raped and no evidence was found on her body. She was too young to testify at that time, hence the lesser charges.
However, he posted bond the night before the preliminary hearing and went back to his country (India). This was also reported by his family. He was entered into the NCIS database as a fugitive and we were told that if he tried to come back he would be apprehended and since my daughter would be older, she should be prepared to testify. The provider lost her license for a year for her violation of the disclosure rule.
We consulted a lawyer to inquire about suing the provider but he suggested we wait until they had some assets as the husband was a student then and they didn't have much.
We always left the door open for my daughter to talk about the incident but the years went by and she appeared to have forgotten. So we all forgot, more or less.
My daughter is now 20 and has recently become depressed due to problems in a relationship with her boyfriend. She is unable to get physically close to him without having a violent reaction and she has started to remember the incident and trauma after the incident.
We spoke about it at length and she would like to bring a lawsuit now. The provider is still running a daycare but they have acquired considerable assets now and she has several employees.
I believe that we can argue against the statute of limitations (2 years from age of majority in VA) running by virtue of the fact that the memory just returned and the trauma is now causing problems for her.
The question is how can we find an attorney that knows how to fight a case like this, or is that even necessary. How often do these cases happen and how often are they won? I assume the DNA and other evidence is still locked up somewhere and will be made available if needed?

