Part one: Does our civil justice system give perpetrators of
sexual assault a discount on the compensation they must pay if
their victims had suffered prior traumas? What about where a
survivor of sexualized violence goes on to experience later traumas
— such as a coercive and violent intimate partner
relationship — does the original perpetrator have to
compensate for harms that flow from these later traumas? Do common
life stressors unrelated to sexual abuse, such as the death of a
family member, a miscarriage, or workplace problems, whether
occurring before, during or after the abuse, reduce a
survivor's entitlement to damages?
These are the types of vexing causation questions that commonly
arise in the context of civil liability for sexual abuse. The
answers to these questions will ultimately depend on the facts and
on the evidence, but there are legal principles that underpin the
answers and are essential to know.
