If you are a survivor of abuse in care, suing the person or organisation responsible (also called taking legal action or civil litigation) for damages is possible.
Damages are a payment that a court or tribunal can award you. Damages can be compensatory or exemplary:
For example:
If you were abused in State (government) care, civil litigation can be a different or additional option to the out-of-court redress schemes that the Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health/Health New Zealand have. It can be helpful to have someone to talk to before, during and after making a claim, about how you are feeling. Learn where you can find support.
Your lawyer can talk to you about how civil litigation works, how likely your case is to succeed, and what you would need to do. Find a legal aid lawyer who specialises in advice for survivorsopen_in_new. Your lawyer will be able to let you know if you can get legal aidopen_in_new. Learn more about legal advice and support you can access.
Many survivors decide not to go to court, because the process:
The following information can bring up a range of emotions. You can click on the arrow to read it.
The Royal Commission found that when survivors went to court to sue an organisation for compensation or damages, they often could not sue because of some laws that affect whether it was possible to sue someone. In other cases, the organisation may no longer exist.
You can read about these issues on the Abuse in Care websiteopen_in_new.
Your lawyer can talk to you about your chances of succeeding in getting damages through the courts or the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
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