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Get the exam first. It is free, it does not require a police report, and for an adult it is available within 120 hours. The Houston hospitals that perform it are listed on our Houston SANE exam locations page.
If you are able to, report to the police now. You are not required to, but the same early evidence that builds a prosecution builds a civil claim.
Then call 713-521-0059, or message us, and say it happened this week. We will tell you what your case needs and get it started, beginning with written notice to whoever holds the video and records so it is kept. There is no guaranteed response time, but we typically respond within 12 to 24 hours of a call or message.
Often, yes. Your civil claim after a sexual assault is frequently brought against the business or property owner whose failures made the assault possible, not only against the person who committed it. That business can be identified, served and held to account whether or not your attacker ever is.
The evidence that proves the business’s failures is the evidence that disappears first. Call 713-521-0059. We will tell you what your case needs and get it started, beginning with written notice to whoever holds the video and records so it is kept.
A hotel that let someone through a side door its own logs show was propped open. You do not need to know who walked through it to show that the door was open. An apartment complex that knew about break-ins and did not fix the gate.
A bar that kept serving and had no one watching the lot. A rideshare company that kept a driver on after complaints. A parking garage with cameras no one monitored.
In Texas, a property owner is not responsible for every crime on its premises, and you should expect the business to say so. Whether it is responsible generally turns on what it knew about the risk and what it did about it. Those are questions answered by the business’s own records. See hotel and motel assault, apartment complex sexual assault and parking lot sexual assault.
Technically, no. A civil claim has a lower standard of proof and does not require an arrest, a charge or a conviction. But an early police report is usually the best thing you can do for the civil case. The police can secure video, pull the business’s records and run the kit against the DNA database, and that investigation is often how an unidentified attacker becomes an identified one. See bringing a civil claim without a criminal case.
It can make part of your claim harder, because a claim against the attacker personally needs a defendant. It usually does not change your claim against the business, which is about the business’s conduct, not the attacker’s identity. The video, the keycard logs and the incident file often identify the attacker anyway, which is one more reason written notice to keep them is the first step.
Get the exam if you are within the first days after the assault; see Houston SANE exam locations. Write down everything you can about the place, the time and the people. Keep your receipts, key card, parking stub and the trip in your app. Then call us, so the records are preserved before you or anyone else decides whether a claim exists.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
If you remember nothing else from this page, remember these.
When you call, we listen first. Then we do what your case needs. That usually begins with written notice to the hotel, apartment complex, bar, rideshare company or anyone else holding video and records, so the evidence is kept.
Where the case calls for it, we bring in the right experts and, where it serves you, co-counsel with the resources a case like this demands. That decision is made in writing, with your consent, and it does not increase your total fee.
We tell you plainly whether a civil claim may exist and what it would take. Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston firm and has handled injury cases in Harris County for 50 plus years. There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Call 713-521-0059.
Often, yes. The claim is frequently against the hotel, apartment complex, bar or company whose failures made the assault possible, and that defendant does not depend on an arrest.
In general terms, what it knew about the risk and what it did about it. The answer is in the business's own records, which is why preserving them comes first.
Sometimes. Video, keycard logs and incident reports obtained in a civil case can identify a person the criminal investigation did not.
No, a civil claim does not require one. A prompt report is still usually the best choice, because the investigation it starts is often what identifies the attacker and secures the video.