In my fifteen years of representing victims of sexual abuse, there often arise situations, sadly, where a client has been through several traumatic events throughout their life. Sometimes the client has been abused by more than one perpetrator. Often there are multiple events that cause the psychological problems.
For success in a civil case the victim (plaintiff) must establish on a balance of probabilities that the sexual abuse caused or materially contributed to their injuries1. It is not necessary for the plaintiff to establish that the sexual abuse was the sole cause of the injury. If there are multiple potential causes of the injury, the sexual abuse need only be “a” cause of the injury or loss, not “the” cause of the injury or loss, for the defendant to be fully liable2.
It is often impossible to parse out which trauma caused which psychological problem. This is called an indivisible loss. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the issue of indivisible losses in the case of G.(E.D.) v. Hammer3. In that case the plaintiff was abused by a janitor as a child. Subsequently, she was sexually abused by others. The Court found the janitor liable for the damages caused by all of the abuse and stated: “The law does not excuse a defendant from liability merely because other causal factors for which he is not responsible also helped produce the harm.”
Therefore, where there are multiple potential causes of a plaintiff’s indivisible injury (i.e. their psychological condition), so long as the defendant’s conduct was a cause of the harm, that defendant can be held liable for all of the harm.
Overall, there are many legal tools available to assist victims of abuse with holding their perpetrator accountable through a civil lawsuit. For more information feel free to reach out to a lawyer at Beckett Injury Lawyers.
1. Sacks v Ross, 2017 ONCA 773 at paras 90 to 132.
2. Athey v Leonati, [1996] SCJ No 102 at para 17.
3. E.D.G. v. Hammer, 2003 SCC 52.
