Frequently Asked Questions About Civil Cases Involving Sexual Assault

Closeup of young females hands clasped with someone placing a hand on top in show of support

Here at The Dickson Firm we are very much committed to representing and supporting survivors of sexual assault. We support the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. We endeavor to do all that we can for survivors.

One of the questions that we often get asked is can we help with the criminal prosecution. The answer typically is no. It is up to the police to investigate these crimes, and then it is up to the prosecutor to pursue these crimes. If you do have questions or you are seeking support relative to the criminal prosecution of your sexual assault, one resource can be the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center if you are in Cleveland. They can be reached at (216) 619-6192 or (440) 423-2020. There are similar rape crisis centers around the state. If you cannot find a local rape crisis center, then call the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and perhaps they can help you or possibly connect you with local resources. You can also call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800) 656-4673.

We here at The Dickson Firm do not have any ability to make any of the prosecutors in the various counties in Ohio pursue a case. One of the things to understand is that these cases can be very difficult to prosecute. If you or someone you love is the victim of one-on-one sexual assault and the only people who know what happened are the survivor and the assailant, these can be very difficult, if not impossible cases to prosecute. The police and the prosecutors are not unsympathetic to what happened. They simply do not want to put you through the very difficult and painful prosecution of a sexual assault case if they do not believe that they can ultimately prevail and convict the assailant.

Understand that the state has the burden of proof in a criminal case. They must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. There must be a unanimous jury. So if your case were to go to a jury trial, there would be twelve (12) jurors, and you must persuade all twelve (12) of them, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the events occurred as you claim they occurred. The assailant will have an attorney who will defend the case and attempt to persuade the jury to at least have doubt as to what happened. If even one juror has doubt as to what happened, then there cannot be a conviction. This is a high standard.

This may very well seem unfair to survivors of sexual assault. Lawmakers have made a decision that they would rather see guilty men go free than innocent men be convicted. As a result, the system is set up to avoid the conviction of the innocent. Unfortunately, the cost of that is that sometimes people who actually commit a crime are not successfully prosecuted and punished for those crimes.

With respect to civil cases, we rarely handle a civil case involving one-on-one sexual assault. If you or someone you love was sexually assaulted by someone who is particularly wealthy, that is a case we would consider. The reason for this is that there is no insurance that would insure anybody for committing sexual assault. So the only way to make a recovery in a sexual assault case is to either recover it directly from the assailant or in a circumstance where the assault occurred at a business. With respect to one-on-one sexual assault, we would not want to put any of our clients through the painful process of pursuing a sexual assault civil case only to get a judgment that we were unable to collect from the assailant because they don't have money or assets from which we could collect a judgment. In many cases, the assailant is in prison. In those cases, it's virtually impossible to collect any judgment.

With respect to sexual assault cases that occur in the context of a business, we very often pursue those cases. If somebody is sexually assaulted at work, particularly by someone who has a history of aggressive behavior at work, then the assailant's employer may be held liable. If someone is sexually assaulted in a public establishment at a bar or a restaurant, then that may be a case. We have pursued sexual assault cases against business facilities where people went to receive different services including massages or therapy and they were sexually assaulted. We have pursued many sexual assault cases where the assault occurred at school.

We would certainly like to help every single person who calls our firm. Please know that if we turn your case down, it is because we do not ultimately think we would make a recovery for you, and we have no desire to put you through the difficult process of pursuing a sexual assault case unless we are able to make a recovery for you.