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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, and our what to do now page walks through the first days in order.
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.
No. A civil claim in Texas does not legally require a police report, an arrest, a criminal charge, or a conviction. An acquittal does not end it, and a decision not to prosecute does not end it. But that is the legal answer, and it is not the whole answer. What makes a civil case winnable is proof, and the two things that create the most proof are a police report and a forensic exam, made soon after it happened. Schiffer Law Firm in Houston takes the cases it can prove, and those are the cases where that was done, or can still be done.
The step that cannot wait is reporting. If it happened recently, you can still make a report and you can still have a forensic exam, which in Texas does not require you to report first and for which you cannot be billed for the forensic portion. Both start the record that a civil case is built on. Then call 713-521-0059, because the other half of the evidence sits in the records of a business, and those records are on a timer.
Because a criminal case and a civil case are different cases with different parties, different burdens and different purposes.
A criminal case is the State of Texas against a defendant. You are a witness, not a party, and the prosecutor decides what happens. The standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the outcome is punishment.
A civil case is you against a defendant, or against a business. You are the party and you decide what happens. The standard is a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, and the outcome is money.
Those two standards are far apart. Conduct that cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt is often proven more likely than not, which is why a case that never resulted in a charge can succeed in a civil courtroom.
For trafficking claims, the Legislature said so in the statute. Section 98.002(b) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code provides that it is not a defense to liability under that chapter that a defendant “has been acquitted or has not been prosecuted or convicted” under Chapter 20A of the Penal Code, “or has been convicted of a different offense or of a different type or class of offense.” The limitations statute for sexual abuse claims, Section 16.0045, is written the same way. It refers to conduct that violates specified Penal Code sections, not conduct that was charged or proven in a criminal case.
Because a report is where the proof starts, and proof is what a civil case runs on.
A report fixes the date, the place and the account while they are fresh. It opens an investigation that gathers statements, video and physical evidence you could never gather yourself, and that a civil case can later obtain. It gives a jury a record made before there was any lawsuit. And where the person who assaulted you is charged and convicted, that conviction is powerful evidence in the civil case.
A forensic exam does the same work for the physical evidence. In Texas the exam does not require a report, the forensic portion is paid by the state, and Article 56B.107(d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure treats having the exam as sufficient evidence of cooperation for crime victims compensation. Our page on evidence after a sexual assault covers the exam, the kit and how long it is kept.
So the position is this. The law does not require a criminal case. We do, in practice, want one, because a case with a report, an exam and an investigation behind it is a case we can prove, and a case with none of those is usually one we cannot. If you have not reported yet and it happened recently, report. If you are not sure whether to, call and ask. There is no charge for the conversation.
Because the evidence that decides these cases is disappearing on a schedule you do not control.
Most of the proof in a civil case is not yours. It is in the records of the business, building or institution where it happened: surveillance video, key card and access logs, incident reports, complaints other people made about the same driver, the same employee or the same broken gate, guard schedules, work orders. Video systems record over themselves, often within thirty days. Access logs purge. Broken gates get fixed. Once that happens, the case against the business becomes an argument instead of a demonstration.
When we are called early, the first step is written notice to whoever holds the records so they are kept, and the investigation and the civil case run alongside each other. When we are called years later, we can still look, and sometimes the records survive, but the odds are different and we will tell you so.
Usually not only the person who assaulted you, and often not primarily.
A judgment against an individual with no assets and no insurance that responds is a piece of paper, and liability policies exclude intentional acts. The recovery usually comes from a business or property owner whose negligence made the assault possible: an apartment complex, a hotel, an employer, a company. That claim is about the defendant’s own conduct, which no prosecutor investigates. No district attorney is asking whether a gate had been broken for three months. That is why the civil case needs its own evidence, and why a report and a prompt call matter even where the criminal case is strong. Our page on who is responsible when a sexual assault happens on property explains what has to be proven against the owner.
It helps, and the sequence runs one way. A criminal case helps a civil case. Its absence does not prevent one.
A conviction is powerful evidence. An investigation generates records, statements and physical evidence a civil plaintiff can later obtain. A pending prosecution sometimes pauses a civil case while it resolves, and we plan for that.
The deadline does not turn on what a prosecutor decided. For a Texas civil claim it is five years for adult sexual assault under Section 16.0045(b), thirty years for the enumerated offenses against a child under Section 16.0045(a), and ten years for intimate image claims under Section 98B.009. Our page on how long you have to sue goes through each one.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
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.
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation program, administered by the Attorney General under Chapter 56B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, contains no requirement of an arrest, a charge or a conviction. The standard is a preponderance of the evidence.
There is a reporting requirement, and it is widely misreported. Article 56B.053 requires a report “within a reasonable period, but not so late as to interfere with or hamper the investigation and prosecution” of the offense. No fixed number of hours or days appears in the statute. There is an extension for extraordinary circumstances, and the requirement does not apply if the victim is a child. Article 56B.107(d) provides that a forensic medical examination is sufficient evidence of substantial cooperation. Our page on Texas Crime Victims Compensation covers the program.
We start with the dates and the record. Whether you reported, whether you had an exam, and what the business still holds decide what we can prove, and we will tell you plainly where your case stands. If it happened recently, the first step is written notice to whoever holds the records so they are kept, and the civil case runs alongside the investigation.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and survivors across Texas.
If you are an advocate or a counselor asking on someone’s behalf, you are welcome to call with a general question. We will not ask you for their name. Our page for advocates, SANE nurses and counselors answers the questions you are most often asked.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
The law does not require one. A civil claim does not depend on a report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction. In practice a report is where the proof starts, and Schiffer Law Firm looks for a report and a forensic exam, or the ability to still make them, before taking a case.
No. The criminal standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the civil standard is more likely than not. An acquittal does not decide the civil claim, and for trafficking claims Section 98.002(b) says so directly.
The deadline may still be open, and the law does not require a report. Whether the case can be proven depends on what evidence still exists, which is usually held by the business and purges on a schedule. Call and ask. We will tell you where it stands.
Yes. A conviction is powerful evidence, and an investigation generates records, statements and physical evidence the civil case can obtain. A criminal case helps a civil case. Its absence does not prevent one.
No. Chapter 56B of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires a report within a reasonable period, not an arrest, a charge or a conviction, and a forensic exam counts as cooperation.