Help a Loved One

How You Can Help a Loved One

If a loved one has suffered through sexual assault, they may go through a stir of emotions ranging from fear to shame, guilt or denial. Survivors need someone to be there for them.

Reassure your loved one that he or she is not alone.

A sexual assault survivor may question whether the assault was their fault and feel afraid or embarrassed to report it to authorities. But no matter what the circumstances of your loved one’s situation is, it is not their fault. There is hope and healing for any person – man, woman or child – to heal from the tragedy of sexual abuse. However, your loved one may need some help getting there.

You can lend invaluable support to your loved one, but it’s important to know what options are available for him or her. Help your loved one understand that there are safe places to go with their experience. Gently remind your loved one that it is okay to feel scared, but regardless of the circumstances, what happened to them is not their fault.

It’s Never the Survivor’s Fault

If your loved one was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs — or even if he or she is undocumented – it is still not their fault. If he or she feels guilty or confused about what happened and is hesitant to report it to law enforcement, the Center for Community Solutions can help your loved one receive a partial physical exam for free. The results will be reported to your loved one, whether or not they decide to go to the police.

Jessica Pride Can Help

We hope your loved one takes steps to criminally prosecute their attacker. However, even if they decide not to pursue criminal prosecution, Jessica Pride can help. Jessica has helped people just like your loved one get their power back through the civil justice system. Most are settled privately and confidentially and do not require a confrontation in court.

Contact Us

Jessica represents survivors of sexual assault throughout California and is available to assist in cases out-of-state. No matter where you live, call us with your questions or if you’d simply like someone to talk to. To learn more about how Jessica can help your loved one, please contact us today at (619) 415-8822.

Advice for Victims of Sexual Assault

CASES 4 CAUSES PODCAST | S1: EPISODE 2

Jeremy Lynch:
Hey Jess, I've got a question for you. After what you just said, where does your survivor advocate team fall into play? You just said you need to heal. So there's gonna be people out there who have survived something like this, and part of the healing process is getting comfortable with even speaking about what happened. So how quickly is there, is there a timeframe that they need to kind of keep in mind when they're ready or thinking about reaching out to someone like you and your firm?

Jessica Pride:
That's a good question. And it's different for everyone. We know that there are people who were molested as children and it took them 20 years to come forward. And in California, right now we have this look back window that closes actually at the end of this year where you can go back 50 years and bring a suit against your predator or the school or whoever was responsible for that it's different for everyone, you know? And, and we can't force a survivor to do something when they're not ready. I would never encourage that. You have to heal on your own timeline. You know, as civil lawyers, we just want people to be aware that there unfortunately are deadlines in civil court that kind of dictate. You only have so much time. So you've got till the end of this year, if it goes back 50 years, but then generally speaking, you got three years in California and it's different around the country, but California, you got three years from the date you were assaulted to bring a civil suit that involves some type of medical malpractice. Like a doctor was the one who hurt you. Or if you got hurt in a psychiatric facility, then sometimes it's one year. But the best thing to do, if you don't know what that timeframe looks like is to call a lawyer and, and to get some legal advice. You also brought up a really good question. You said who's answering the phone here at the firm. I feel strongly that when you talk to someone at my firm, you need to talk to someone who is trauma informed. And so our victim advocates are survivor advocates. However you would like to call them. They are the ones who do our intakes at the office. Our survivor advocates have gone through the 62 hour crisis intervention training. They have a lot of experience in talking to survivors.

So we want you to talk to somebody that, you know, survivors feel comfortable talking to who can tell them, not only kind of get some information about what happened, but also talk to 'em about resources. We always wanna make sure that our clients have healing resources. And so we have a whole list of providers around the state that can help you. We also have free resources up on our website, under the self care tab. So we realize that when people are an immediate crisis, what we need to do is stabilize them. They could care less about a civil case. If they're worried about being able to go to work and make rent this month. But because they spent the money on counseling, now they can't afford that. Or they've got children who need them, but they can't even fill their own cup so that they can take care of them. So we really try to help stabilize a survivor, get 'em to a place where they're getting resources. So then we can even get to that talk about a civil case. And I always try to tell my clients, you know, what? You focus on healing, give me your legal woes. And I don't want you to worry about that. I'm gonna take care of your legal case. You focus on healing and together we're gonna get there.

Help a Loved One

How You Can Help a Loved One

It’s Never the Survivor’s Fault

Jessica Pride Can Help

Contact Us

CASES 4 CAUSES PODCAST | S1: EPISODE 2

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