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Category: Sexual Assault & Trafficking

New Legislation Could Make It Easier for Georgia Sex Trafficking Survivors to Win Compensation in Civil Court

Two important bills in Georgia’s fight against sex trafficking passed the State Senate on March 8th, the General Assembly’s crossover day. These bills will now advance to the House for further debate, and could well become law in the near future. The first, Senate Bill 33, explicitly protects sex trafficking survivors’ right to sue their traffickers for monetary compensation, plus legal costs. Under Bill 33, survivors would have until 10 years after the trafficking incident in question, or...

Underage Trafficking Victims in Coweta County Have Strong Grounds to Pursue Human Trafficking Lawsuits

Over the past year or so, Coweta County has become a significant focus in Georgia’s fight against sex trafficking. By searching social media for prostitution ads and working closely with organizations like the Human Exploitation Investigations Group and Homeland Security’s Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Group, local law enforcement has been able to set up several stings at Coweta County hotels. In November of 2019, officers made 15 arrests, two of them for pimping, one for pander...

Top Atlanta Resources for Escaping or Recovering from Sex Trafficking

As a law firm specializing in civil litigation, The Stoddard Firm tends to discuss issues like sex trafficking in terms of liability. However, we recognize that the litigation process is slow, and for many people facing sex trafficking, the idea of filing a lawsuit may seem impossibly distant and abstract. In this post, we’ll instead highlight just a few of the resources available to people in the Atlanta area who need immediate help avoiding, escaping, or healing from sex trafficking. Ge...

Can I Sue My Trafficker Even Though He Is in Prison?

The short answer is yes, you can sue a human trafficker, or indeed anyone who has harmed you with their negligent or illegal behavior, while they are incarcerated. There is no law preventing you from doing so, and there’s plenty of precedent for it. In fact, 80 survivors of Nxivm, the sex cult and alleged pyramid scheme that until recently was passing for an elite self-help group, are currently suing founder Keith Raniere for compensation. Their complaints range from sexual coercion to mon...

Carl Ferrer of Backpage Has Pled Guilty, But What About Lacey and Larkin?

Carl Ferrer, CEO of the infamous adult ad website, Backpage, has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to facilitate prostitution, as well as three counts of money laundering. The money laundering was apparently an attempt to hide the true source of Backpage’s income from banks that would otherwise have refused to handle it. As part of his plea, Ferrer has also agreed to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of the companies’ two founders, Michael Lacy and James Larkin. Ferr...

Can I Bring a Sexual Assault Case Anonymously?

Survivors of sexual assault are often hesitant to come forward and assert their legal rights, and understandably so. Court proceedings can be invasive, particularly when sex crimes are involved, being a known survivor of sexual assault can carry harmful stigmas, and perpetrators and their legal counsel will typically do their best to discredit and demonize survivors who speak out. Many survivors also face ongoing threats of violence after the incident in question. One of the legal tools su...

New Federal Standards Leave Private School Students as Vulnerable as Ever to Sexual Assault

The Secretary of Education has recently announced new changes to Title IX, a set of standards originally instituted to protect students from sexual assault and harassment in schools. In spite of many schools’ protestations that they won’t be able to institute the changes in time, while also changing school operations to address contagion risks, the new standards are set to take effect on August 14th. The Latest Changes to Title IX Discourage Sexual Assault Reporting Advocacy groups for sexu...

Atlanta’s Hotels Are a Haven for Child Sex Traffickers

Ever since the publication of the Urban Institute’s 2014 report on the illegal sex trade, the city of Atlanta has been trying to shake the unofficial title of “Sex Trafficking Capitol of the U.S.” Although it would take more research into the nationwide issue of sex trafficking to prove that Atlanta’s share of it is in fact the worst, the report did reveal Atlanta’s sex trafficking problem to be far larger than most locals would ever have guessed. As of 2007, the illegal sex industry was wort...