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Torts/Personal Injury

Feb. 3, 2025

The conflict between protected sexual history evidence and damages in childhood sexual abuse cases

Childhood sexual abuse survivors face significant non-economic damages, including emotional distress and sexual dysfunction, but best practices avoid claiming sexual damages to protect privacy and prevent violating CCP 2017.220, which shields sexual history from discovery.

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Victims of childhood sexual abuse have enormous non-economic damages, including emotional and mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, anxiety, humiliation, and shame. These non-economic damages inherently include sexual dysfunction damages. Sexual dysfunction can include actual physical sexual dysfunction, a loss of interest in sexual activity, hyper-sexualization, sexual addiction, and more. However, the best practice is to avoid specifically claiming or enumerating "se...

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