Call Now
713-521-0059
You usually have two civil claims, and they carry two different deadlines. Your claim against the person who assaulted you has a five year period for most adult offenses and thirty years for offenses against a child committed recently. Your claim against the hotel, apartment complex, business or institution whose negligence allowed it to happen is an ordinary negligence claim. The standard limitations period for that claim is two years. Schiffer Law Firm in Houston represents survivors in sexual assault claims across Texas and the United States.
That difference is the single most important thing on this page. The claim with the shorter deadline is usually the one where the actual monetary recovery is for our clients. Property owners, management companies and institutions carry insurance. Individual assailants generally do not, nor do they usually have the resources to pay for the full consequences of these crimes. If you were told only about the five-year period, you can lose the most valuable claim while believing there is time.
The step that cannot wait is the evidence, and most of it is not yours. It is in the records of the business, building or institution where the assault happened, and those records are typically on an automatic timer. Surveillance video, gate and key fob logs, incident reports and courtesy patrol records run on deletion schedules measured in days and weeks. A preservation letter should go out immediately. Our page on what evidence matters, and what disappears goes through this in more detail.
Call 713-521-0059 to schedule a call with attorney Jacob Schiffer.
Technically no, but it will make a significant difference if you do have one. A civil claim does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction, and an acquittal does not end it. Nonetheless, having a criminal case against the assailant brings substantial benefits in the civil arena. Those include earlier collection of evidence by law enforcement, a potential guilty plea, and greater leverage against the institutional defendant, which comes to understand the seriousness of the assault and the magnitude of the damages.
The criminal case and the civil case ask different questions and apply different burdens of proof. Nothing about talking to a lawyer obliges you to file anything. And talking to a lawyer could prevent critical evidence from being lost forever. Our page on bringing a civil claim without a criminal case explains how the two systems differ.
Section 16.0045 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives you a longer period where your injury arises from conduct violating listed Penal Code provisions.
You have thirty years under Section 16.0045(a) where the conduct violates one of these Penal Code sections:
You have five years under Section 16.0045(b) where the conduct violates one of these against an adult:
Two tolling rules can help you. Section 16.001 tolls limitations while a person is younger than 18 or of unsound mind. A claim by someone abused as a child therefore does not begin to run during childhood. Section 16.0045(d) tolls the period where a petition is filed naming an unknown defendant as John or Jane Doe, provided you proceed with due diligence to discover the identity.
Because Section 16.0045 is written in terms of conduct that violates those Penal Code sections. A hotel, apartment complex or employer that failed to provide adequate security, or that had negligent employment practices, did not commit that conduct. Its liability is typically for general negligence, and the general two-year period in Section 16.003(a) is what a defendant will argue applies.
The conservative position is to plan around the shorter deadline rather than litigate about it after it has run. If something happened to you, the practical answer is that your valuable claim may have a two-year fuse.
Two things: that the assault was foreseeable to the owner and that the risk to you was unreasonable. Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998), sets the foreseeability test. Courts weigh whether similar crime occurred on or near the property, how recently, how often, how similar it was, and how publicized, in deciding whether the owner knew or should have known.
Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, 307 S.W.3d 762 (Tex. 2010), holds those factors are not the only route. Actual knowledge of a specific, building danger can establish foreseeability on its own. A property that had prior complaints about the person who assaulted you, or that knew your gate or security fence had been broken for months, is in that territory.
UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie, 517 S.W.3d 98 (Tex. 2017), adds the separate requirement. You must prove the risk was unreasonable, weighing the burden of preventing it against the magnitude of the risk. The plaintiff in UDR lost on exactly that gap.
Anywhere a business or institution controlled the place you were in and the people around you. The common settings are apartment complexes, hotels and motels, rideshare vehicles, parking lots and garages, and medical and gynecology offices. Schools, colleges, churches, youth centers, gymnastics and cheer programs, summer camps, sports arenas and parks are the others. Each has its own page on this site, and the property owner claim works the same way in all of them.
Two chapters reach further than ordinary negligence. Chapter 98 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code creates liability for a defendant who engages in the trafficking of persons. It also reaches a defendant who intentionally or knowingly benefits from participating in a venture that traffics another person. It provides for actual damages, exemplary damages and attorney fees. Chapter 98B creates liability for the unlawful disclosure or promotion of intimate visual material.
These chapters matter to you beyond damages, because each carries its own anonymity provision. Section 98.007 and Section 98B.008 each direct the court to allow you to use a confidential identity in an action under that chapter. Section 30.013 is separate and narrower. It applies only where the plaintiff is an individual younger than 18, or that individual’s parents or legal guardian. The action must be based on conduct described as a felony under Penal Code Section 22.011 or Section 22.021.
Outside those three statutes, an adult survivor asking to proceed by pseudonym in Texas is making a request to the trial court’s discretion. Texas appellate authority on that question is sparse. Our page on suing without your name becoming public answers that question in full.
It depends. However, not if the conduct meets Section 41.008(c). That subsection removes the exemplary damages cap where the conduct was committed knowingly or intentionally and is described as a felony in a listed set of Penal Code sections. Those include Section 22.011 sexual assault and Section 21.02 continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual. They also include Section 22.02 aggravated assault, Section 20.04 aggravated kidnapping and Chapter 20A trafficking of persons.
You still have to prove fraud, malice or gross negligence by clear and convincing evidence under Section 41.003. Where the cap is off, the jury’s award is not reduced to the statutory limit.
Often, yes. Section 92.0161 of the Texas Property Code allows a tenant who is a victim of sexual assault or sexual abuse to terminate the lease and vacate without further liability for rent. The right applies in the circumstances the statute sets out, and it is subject to the notice and documentation the section requires.
Leasing offices frequently tell survivors they owe the balance of the term. That is not always true, and you should check before you sign a move-out agreement. Our page on breaking a lease after a sexual assault goes through the steps.
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.
A civil claim is not about punishment as such, although punitive damages, where applicable, are about punishment in the civil realm. Punishment is otherwise what the criminal system is for, and it is a separate process with a separate burden of proof. A civil claim is about the cost of what happened to you and who should carry it, and that cost is measured by your losses.
Those costs are real and usually ongoing. Therapy does not end when the case does. If you move out of a complex mid-lease, you pay for the move and the deposit on the next place. You often pay the remaining rent as well, unless you know about Section 92.0161 of the Property Code.
Texas also runs a Crime Victims’ Compensation program through the Attorney General. It can assist with counseling, relocation and lost wages, and it does not require an arrest or a conviction. It is not a substitute for a civil claim, and the two interact at settlement, because the State is subrogated to a recovery for pecuniary loss. Our page on Crime Victims’ Compensation in Texas explains the program. The program is usually a last resort where a civil claim is not viable.
The first conversation is free, it is confidential, and it does not commit you to anything. If there is a case, we will say so and explain what it would involve. If there is not, we will say that too, and say why.
We send the preservation letter first, because the records that prove a case against a property owner are the ones that disappear. Then we work to identify the claims you may have, calendar the shorter statute of limitations, decide with you whether to proceed under your own name or a confidential identity, and begin to build the dream team.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and survivors across Texas. Jacob Schiffer was one of three lawyers on the trial team that obtained the largest Texas verdict of 2023, a $1.2 billion verdict in a Harris County image-based sexual abuse case. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other case.
If you are an advocate, a SANE nurse or a counselor helping someone right now, you are welcome to call on their behalf with a general question. You do not need their permission to ask us how something works, and we will not ask you for their name.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Call 713-521-0059 to schedule a time to speak with attorney Jacob Schiffer.
It depends on the defendant. Against the person who assaulted you, Section 16.0045 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives five years for most adult offenses and thirty years for offenses against a child if the assault happened recently. The standard two-year period in Section 16.003(a) applies against a property owner or institution whose negligence allowed it. Plan around the shorter two-year statute of limitations.
Technically no, but it is highly advised for the strongest possible civil injury claim. A civil claim technically does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction, and an acquittal does not end it. The two systems ask different questions and apply different burdens of proof. What a civil claim does need is evidence, and most of it sits in the records of the business or institution where it happened. Nonetheless, a criminal investigation and ultimate conviction significantly assist in the prosecution of a civil claim for the victim.
Yes, where the assault was foreseeable and the risk was unreasonable under Timberwalk, Del Lago and UDR. That claim is usually where any real recovery for a client is, because property owners and management companies carry insurance and individual assailants do not.
Sometimes. Chapters 98 and 98B each carry their own anonymity provisions, in Sections 98.007 and 98B.008. Section 30.013 is separate and applies only where the plaintiff is under 18. Outside those, an adult asking to proceed by pseudonym is making a request to the court's discretion, and Texas appellate authority is sparse.
It depends. However, not when the conduct meets Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41.008(c). That subsection removes the cap for conduct committed knowingly or intentionally and described as a felony under listed Penal Code sections. Those sections include sexual assault, continuous sexual abuse of a young child, aggravated kidnapping and trafficking. You still must prove fraud, malice or gross negligence by clear and convincing evidence under Section 41.003.
Often, yes. Section 92.0161 of the Texas Property Code allows a tenant who is a victim of sexual assault or sexual abuse to terminate the lease and vacate without further rent liability. The right applies in the circumstances the statute sets out and requires the notice and documentation the section describes.