Making the Case for Victims’ Privacy in Civil Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

Requirements that an adult plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit involving childhood sexual abuse cannot proceed without revealing their legal names or identities could constitute a form of revictimization for that person. When courts deny the right for an individual to file claims in cases like this, using a pseudonym, or to keep private their abuse history from collaterals who have no information relevant to their claims, the harms already suffered by a victim/survivor could be magnified. Many of the same traumagenic dynamics that had operated years earlier related to the abuse could play out as the plaintiff experiences a loss of power, a likelihood of being stigmatized, and a sense of betrayal by the jurisdictional system of justice. In these types of cases, the laws and policies involved need to be trauma-informed and to protect plaintiffs from potential harm when their rights are not considered.