Sexual abuse causes its victims severe and life altering issues that, if untreated, can last years or even a lifetime. They are entitled to substantial sums of money to compensate them for the damaged lives they are forced to lead. A common problem they face, though, is that the sexual abusers themselves often have no money to compensate their victims.

Sexual abusers are often judgment proof. That means they have no significant personal assets with which to satisfy a judgment against them.  A huge award of damages from a sympathetic jury would amount to almost nothing because there is little to no chance of collecting anything on that judgment.

Critical to a successful lawsuit for sexual abuse is finding a source or sources of funds to pay for the damages sustained by the victim. Though the perpetrators may be judgment proof, their enablers and facilitators often do have assets.

Let’s say an attack takes place in a victim’s apartment after a break-in. The offender has no assets to speak of. In this instance, perhaps the landlord was negligent and failed to exercise reasonable care in providing security for their tenants.  setting up security. A company may be liable if their employee sexually victimizes a customer and, but for the company’s negligence, the known predator would never have had access to the company’s customer who was hurt.

Large organizations, including the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America, have paid millions of dollars in settlements and judgments because their clergy or leaders preyed on young people. Brother and priest that are part of the Church may lack the means to compensate victims, but the Diocese they belong to likely do. Similarly, a Boy Scout scoutmaster that sexually abuses his scouts may not have the millions of dollars to compensate their victims for a life gone awry, but the organization does.