Practice Areas

Clergy / Therapist Sexual Misconduct

For those who are clergy sexual abuse victims, priest abuse victims or therapist abuse victims, the trauma inflicted can have lifelong consequences. As a San Francisco Bay Area law firm of trial lawyers with experience fighting for settlements in pain and suffering cases, Teal & Montgomery is in a unique position for providing legal counsel for these clients and or their families.

The California legislature has passed a new law which reflects a growing social awareness that sexual abuse of children is an endemic problem that often translates into emotional and spiritual devastation. Present law has a statute of limitations for victims of pedophiles or sexual predators that is either the plaintiff’s twenty-sixth birthday, or three years after he or she discovers that psychological injury or illness was caused by sexual abuse.

In California, clergy or priest sexual abuse victims now have additional recourses in a court of law. Our attorneys understand the sensitive nature of these cases.

Another growing concern is that of therapist sexual misconduct confronting the acupuncture community, which is the increasing volume of complaints by females against male acupuncturists. In addition, physicians in several specialties have also been involved in sexual abuse claims. These include family practice, internal medicine, gastroenterology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, pediatrics, urology, psychiatry and anesthesiology.

Sexual abuse by a therapist, or someone in the medical profession, would fall into one of three general categories:

Sexual impropriety that would include non-physical contact of a patient that is "disrespectful in manner and sexually demeaning." This includes inappropriate jokes, crude gestures, printed and posted "dumb blonde" jokes, or demeaning comments about a patient's undergarments.
Sexual transgression is the inappropriate touching of a patient stopping just short of an overt sexual act. This issue may occur with unnecessary breast or genital examinations or trigger point therapy near the breast or genital areas.
Sexual violation is a sexual act between patient and doctor / therapist. There is no distinction between which party initiated the contact or whether the act was consensual.

If you are a California clergy sexual abuse victim, priest abuse victim or victim of therapist sexual misconduct, please call or contact our law firm for a free consultation.