The firm's page on what happens after you call covers the first thirty days, and it is honest that a serious case takes a year or more.
This article covers the year or more itself. What happens after a petition is filed, roughly in what order, and what is being asked of the survivor at each point.
Two cautions before it starts. The order and the timing of these stages are set by the court and by the case, not by any fixed schedule, and cases vary widely. And this article cites no procedural rule, because the specifics differ by court, by county and by case. Nothing here describes what will happen in a particular case, what a court will require, or what any settlement will involve.
The petition, and the answer
A case starts with a petition. What it contains is a drafting decision with real consequences for what becomes public, which is set out in what actually becomes public when you file.
Each defendant is served, and each is expected to respond. What that response is, and when it is due, is set by the rules and by the court. Where several entities are involved, an owner, a manager, a contractor, a franchisee, they respond separately and may point at each other. That is normal, and a defendant explaining why another defendant is responsible is still putting information on the record.
Written discovery
Both sides send written questions and requests for documents. Both sides respond, and what actually has to be produced is frequently litigated.
This is the stage where the case against a business is actually built. The categories a property is asked about are the ones set out in what your apartment complex may have known and what a hotel would have: prior incidents, complaints, maintenance, staffing, contracts, policies, and what was reported to whom.
For the survivor this stage is mostly paperwork done with a lawyer. It is neither public nor performed. What sensitive material is protected and how is a question to raise here rather than later, and two categories have their own pages because they deserve more than a paragraph: therapy records and questions about sexual history. Social media is on can they see my social media.
Documents come in
Then the documents arrive, and the case changes shape.
This is often when a survivor learns things she did not know. That another resident had complained. That a manager had written an email. That a repair had been requested four times. It can be difficult reading and it is also the moment a case stops being one person's account and becomes an institution's own paper.
Depositions
Witnesses testify under oath, with a court reporter, usually in a conference room rather than a courtroom.
The defendant's people are deposed: the property manager, the maintenance supervisor, whoever received the complaint, whoever decided the budget. Frequently the survivor is deposed too. That is the part people dread, and there is a page devoted to it, what happens at my deposition.
Preparation for a deposition is part of the work, and no one should be sent to one without it.
Experts
Each side may retain experts. In a case about a property, a retained security expert may be asked to address lighting, camera coverage, access control, staffing, patrol records and the property's own written policies. Other experts may address injury, future care and economic loss.
The defendant retains its own. That is ordinary in these cases, and it is one reason they carry real expense, which is explained in what it costs to hire a civil sexual assault lawyer.
Motions
Defendants file motions, including motions asking the court to dispose of some or all of the claims before trial. Responding to them is a significant piece of work and it happens largely on paper.
A motion being filed is not a verdict on the case. It is a normal step, and lawyers on both sides expect it.
Mediation
Many cases go to mediation before trial, by agreement or because the case is sent there. A neutral third party spends a day moving between rooms trying to get the parties to an agreement.
The survivor is usually present, usually in a separate room from the defendants, and is not required to speak to them. The survivor decides whether to accept.
Where crime victims compensation has been paid there are additional statutory requirements before a claim can be settled, including the Attorney General's written authorization, which is set out in what to do when the prosecutor declines. That is a matter to raise with your lawyer well before mediation day.
Whether any resulting settlement is confidential is negotiated rather than automatic, and that has its own page, will my settlement be confidential, as does the separate question of what an NDA costs you to sign.
Trial setting
Cases get a trial date, and trial dates move. A setting that moves is not a sign of anything having gone wrong.
If a case is tried, what a jury is asked in a premises case is the framework on the negligent security page: foreseeability under Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, the additional routes recognized in Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, and the separate showing under UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie that the response was unreasonable in light of the burden of preventing the harm.
Resolution, and what comes out of it
A case ends in a judgment or an agreement. Either way, what the client actually receives is the gross recovery, less the attorney's fee and case expenses in whichever order the fee agreement provides, less the medical bills and liens that have to be paid. That arithmetic, and the written closing statement a client is entitled to, is in what it costs to hire a civil sexual assault lawyer.
What is asked of you, across the whole of it
Provide records and information. Answer written questions with your lawyer. Sit for a deposition. Keep treating if you are treating. Tell your lawyer things that are uncomfortable, early, rather than letting them arrive from the other side. Attend mediation. Make the decisions, because they are yours.
The account is given in specific settings, with preparation, and with your own lawyer present. It is not given repeatedly and it is not given on demand.
Before any of it
None of the above starts without the deadlines being checked. A negligence claim against a business carries two years under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, claims arising from the offenses listed in Section 16.0045 carry thirty years or five, and which reaches which defendant is a calculation. See what stops the clock.
There is no charge for the first conversation and no attorney's fee unless there is a recovery.
Call 713-521-0059.
Authorities
Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998)
Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, 307 S.W.3d 762 (Tex. 2010)
UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie, 517 S.W.3d 98 (Tex. 2017)
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 16 (limitations)
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.