Sexual Assault Lawyers in Houston, Texas
The sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC can assist you if you or someone you love was a victim of sexual assault. You, or someone you love , may be entitled to seek compensation or damages from perpetrators or from other parties that permitted the sexual assault to occur. There are certain situations where companies, organizations, and groups have a responsibility to report sexual assault assault or to take steps to prevent it. For example, hotel staff have a responsibility to prevent sexual assault on their premises, and staff should be trained to identify signs of sexual assault or human trafficking.
If you were a victim of sexual assault contact the sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC today. Our lawyers can review your case, identify responsible parties, and fight to help you receive the compensation you deserve. While victims shouldn’t be responsible for changing broken systems, the sad truth is that it often takes a lawsuit for sexual assault to change practices and procedures that allow sexual assault to continue to occur. A sexual assault lawsuit can not only provide you the money you need to move forward but also raise awareness and create change in corporations, hotels, businesses, schools and churches where sexual assault has been covered up or permitted to continue.
What is Sexual Assault?
Sexual assault is defined by the Texas penal code as the intentional or “knowing” penetration of the anus or sexual organ of another person, using any method, without that person’s consent. Lack of consent can take many forms.
Lack of consent can include:
- The use of force, violence, or the threat of violence to force another person to engage in sexual activity.
- Engaging in sexual acts with another person while the other person is unconscious or unable to resist the sexual act.
- Engaging in sexual acts when the person pursuing the sexual activity knows that the other person is unable to resist because of a mental disease or “defect” that makes the victim unable to understand what is happening or able to resist what is happening.
- Engaging in a sexual act when the victim hasn’t consented or is not aware what is happening.
- Giving another person a drug or substance to impair his or her judgement or ability to resist a sexual act.
- Being a public servant or a person in position of power and using that position to force another person to perform a sexual act.
- Being a mental health provider or medical provider and using a patient’s emotional or physical dependency to convince them to into perform sexual acts.
- Being a member of the clergy and using that position of power and role as a spiritual advisor to manipulate members of the spiritual group to perform unwanted sexual acts.
- Sexual acts between a person who is an employee at a facility and a resident at the same facility.
- Being a medical provider who performs an assisted reproductive procedure on a person using genetic material from a donor who hasn’t given permission to use the genetic material or performing such a procedure on a person or persons when one of the parties whose genetic material is being used hasn’t given permission for the material to be used in the procedure.
- Being a coach or a tutor who uses his or her influence or exploits the other person’s dependency to force the victim to engage in sexual acts.
- Being a caregiver or nurse hired to help a person with daily life activities who forces a victim to submit to sexual acts when he or she hasn’t given permission or when his or her vulnerability or dependency is exploited.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you may be facing a range of challenges, including mental distress, missed days from work, and the need for long-term mental health and medical care. The sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC are here to help you if you have been sexually assaulted. We can evaluate your case, identify the ways in which your violator violated Texas law, and fight to help you receive compensation to cover your medical expenses, lost wages, rehabilitation costs, and pain and suffering. We are here to help. Contact Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC, a Texas sexual assault law firm today.
What are My Rights If I Have Been Sexually Assaulted in Houston, Texas?
Victims often do not report sexual assault because of a concern that they will not be believed. Victims also might feel shame about what took place or even blame themselves for what happened. It is never your fault that you were sexually assaulted. It doesn’t matter what clothes you were wearing , whether you were flirting or how much you drank, sexual assault is not about sexual gratification – it is about control and domination.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you have the right to report the crime to police and the right to be taken seriously. Sexual assault is a violent crime, and police should see your report as the opportunity to identify a dangerous assailant and to protect the public. Police should interview you with respect, should thoroughly investigate the case, and should treat you with compassion as a victim. Victims of sexual assault can suffer immense psychological, mental, and physical distress as a result of these crimes. Victims may need years of psychological treatment and medical care. They may miss time from work or find that their lives are completely disrupted as a result of this type of violent crime. Many institutions, like hotels, schools, and churches have an important responsibility to take reports of sexual assault seriously, hold offenders accountable, and prevent sexual assault when the signs are present.
If you or someone you love has suffered sexual assault, and has suffered from physical, emotional, and psychological distress as a result of the sexual assault, you might be entitled to seek damages from the perpetrator or from parties that may have permitted the act to occur or continue. For example, a victim of sexual assault might be able to seek damages from a perpetrator, but also may be able to seek damages from a hotel, school, employer, or other party that was aware of the sexual assault, or was aware of a pattern of sexual violence, and refused to take action. Contact the sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC today to learn more and fight back if you or someone you love was a sexual assault victim or suffered sexual assault due to the negligence of a third party.
Hotel Sexual Assault Lawyer in Houston, Texas
If you were a victim of sexual assault at a hotel, the hotel sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC may be able to help you seek damages and compensation for your losses and injuries. Hotels are transient spaces, and the transient nature of these spaces can be used by an offender to entrap, trick, or manipulate a victim into a situation where she (or he) can be more vulnerable to sexual assault. Victims have won significant awards against hotels when investigations have uncovered the fact that hotels failed to follow their own safety procedures, hiring procedures, or safety protocols, resulting in increased risk to guests.. Even more alarming is the fact that sometimes victims of sexual assault are assaulted inside gated resorts by the very staff there to protect them. According to the U.S. Embassy half of Americans raped in Jamaica in 2017, were raped by hotel staff.
Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC has won millions of dollars for hotel sexual assault victims. Our most recent victory resulted in a $44 million award to a woman who was sexually assaulted while unconscious after she was placed into a man’s room who told hotel staff that “she’s with me”. She wasn’t, and the staff failed to check her identification and discover that she had her own room. Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC fights for the rights of victims who have been sexually assaulted in hotels. When hotel staff and security fail to take steps to protect victims from violent crimes, hotels can be held legally responsible. Guests pay money to have a safe place to stay. When hotel staff and security fail to follow safety procedures and protocols and fail to take steps to protect victims, hotels can be held liable for their negligence.
If you were sexually assaulted in a hotel, the hotel sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC may be able to help you. Our sexual assault attorneys in Houston, Texas help individuals who have been assaulted. We can take the hotel to court and win significant settlements for hotel sexual assault victims.
Rideshare Sexual Assault Lawyer in Houston, Texas
Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC is a rideshare sexual assault law firm in Houston, Texas that may be able to assist you if you were sexually assaulted in an Uber or Lyft. Recently, more victims have come forward, pursuing lawsuits against Uber and Lyft. The victims report that they were sexually assaulted during rides. Victims recount horrifying stories of Uber or Lyft drivers locking doors, sexually assaulting them, and in one instance, even warning a victim against reporting the crime because he “knew where she lived.” In other instances, riders were victimized by other riders while utilizing carpool services. If you were sexually assaulted in an Uber or Lyft, you may have the right to seek damages from these companies for your injuries, distress, and losses. More and more women are coming forward, reporting instances of sexual assault in Ubers and Lyfts. These companies may not always report sexual assaults to police, leaving reporting up to victims. The sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC may be able to help you fight back. Our sexual assault law firm in Houston, Texas could hold these companies accountable if they failed to remove drivers who had a criminal record, failed to remove drivers after reports were made, or failed to take action after you reported a sexual assault.
Can Third Parties Be Responsible for Sexual Assault in Houston, Texas?
The person who perpetrated the sexual assault can be held accountable for the act of violence, both criminally and in civil court (meaning the perpetrator may be required to pay money to victims and their families). Yet, third parties can also be held responsible for sexual assault as well. Sometimes organizations fail to have practices and procedures in place to properly prevent sexual assault and there are also situations where organizations have covered up sexual assault to protect high-power individuals. The sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC can review your case, help you identify all responsible parties, and hold them to account. By holding organizations, institutions, and companies responsible, victims can help encourage these companies to create better policies and procedures to prevent sexual assault in the future. While it is never a victim’s responsibility to change the system, a lawsuit targeted at negligent organizations can benefit a victim and also lead to positive change in organizations that aren’t taking steps to prevent sexual assault in Houston, Texas.
Individuals have brought lawsuits against employers who failed to take action when managers or other leaders in a company engaged in sexual assault. In some cases, employers or companies might have even tried to silence or cover up patterns of sexual assault when they were perpetrated by people of power in an organization. In other cases , individuals filed lawsuits against universities and schools when administrators and other departments in a school failed to take action where there were patterns of sexual abuse and assault. For example, some individual students have sought damages against university and college officials for failing to take action when they reported sexual assault and sexual violence on campus. Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC is a sexual assault law firm in Houston, Texas that may be able to assist you if you have suffered because an individual committed an act of sexual violence, or because an institution failed to take action when sexual assault was reported.
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON CAMPUS LAWSUITS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS
According to the Office on Women’s Health, one in five women in college experience rape or sexual assault. Sexual assault on college campuses often involves alcohol or drugs, and peer pressure may put women and men in situations where they may feel coerced into engaging in sexual behavior. In many cases, individuals might not report sexual assault on campus, either because they are not aware that what happened is assault, or they are afraid. Sometimes when individuals do report their assaults on campus, administrators fail to take action to protect them. In some instances, colleges and universities have failed to provide victims with the help they need, or have failed to protect victims from assailants. If you believe a college or university mishandled your sexual assault report, you may have the right to pursue a lawsuit. Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC is a sexual assault law firm in Houston, Texas that works with sexual assault victims and their families to assist them in seeking justice for their losses.
Sexual Assault Myths and Facts
It is never your fault if you were raped or sexually assaulted. There are many myths about sexual assault and rape. The way you dress, the number of drinks you had, and your level of resistance to the sexual assault once the assault began to take place in no way reduces the perpetrator’s responsibility for committing an act of sexual assault. No means no. If you did not consent to a sexual act, you were sexually assaulted.
Furthermore, victims may find themselves manipulated into engaging in sexual acts by people who hold influence or power over their lives. Members of the clergy, coaches, medical professionals and others may use their power or influence to coerce individuals into sexual acts. Victims can also find themselves entrapped in situations where there is no easy escape from a perpetrator, like in cases where sexual assault happens at a hotel or in a rideshare. Many victims hold on to guilt because they did not fight back. Sadly, victims may not realize that it is entirely normal to “freeze” during a sexual assault. Perpetrators may also manipulate, coerce, or threaten victims into engaging in sexual activity when they do not want to participate.
Most sexual assaults are committed by people who knew the victim. Even if you knew your assailant, you have the right to fight back and seek justice. If you were a victim of sexual assault, you may have the right to seek compensation for your losses. Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC is a sexual assault law firm in Houston, Texas that works to fight myths of sexual assault, by hearing victims’ stories and helping them fight back.
SEEK JUSTICE TODAY
The sexual assault lawyers at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC in Houston, Texas can help you seek damages for your medical bills, rehabilitation expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other losses if you or someone you love has been a victim of sexual assault. Sexual assault can impact your life in many ways, and victims might suffer from PTSD and other long-lasting emotional symptoms. Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC are compassionate and caring lawyers who are accepting clients who have suffered from sexual assault either due to an individual’s actions or due to an institution’s failure to take action and prevent sexual assault from taking place. Our sexual assault lawyers in Houston, Texas at Blizzard Greenberg, PLLC are here to help you fight back, hold perpetrators accountable, and hold organizations and institutions accountable that failed to take steps to protect you,