Can I Sue for Assault and Battery?

You may have the right to sue for assault and/or battery if someone threatens to harm you or physically harms you, but to have a claim, you need to have suffered bodily injury and/or emotional distress. You can contact our lawyers to find out if the facts of your case support a claim against the person who harmed you and others, for example a landlord or other property owner. You will have a much better chance of obtaining compensation if a property owner is legally responsible. This is because the person who hurt you may not have any money. You can contact our law firm for a free consultation with a lawyer using the form below.

Below are some examples of when you may have a claim for assault and/or battery:

• Your apartment or hotel room was broken into, and you were raped or otherwise injured;
• Your therapist was intimate with you;
• You were at a place of business and someone beat you or your child up (child care center injury);
• You were beaten up by the police; or
• A food handler at a restaurant purposely put something harmful in your food (bleach in your drink, for example).

Who Can I Sue for Assault and Battery?

In addition to the perpetrator, a bar, restaurant, store owner, landlord, homeowner, etc. can be sued for assault and/or battery if the facts and law support the claim. In addition, if you had a relationship with a therapist or similar professional, you may have the right to sue for compensation, even if the relationship was consensual. These are just a few of the possibilities. The facts of your case may lead to a lawsuit if you were significantly harmed and the facts can prove that someone else was at fault.

Parties that may be held liable for your injuries may include:

• Your landlord if he/her did not take necessary precautions to ensure your safety;
• The owner of a business where the incident occurred;
• The owner of the building where it occurred;
• The owner of a parking lot that did not have the necessary security precautions;
• A security company if the company failed to provide adequate security;
• Your employer if the conditions in which you were working left you vulnerable to attack;
• A homeowner if you were in someone’s home;
• The perpetrator.

Assault and battery cases can involve any of the following:

• Sexual assault;
• Physical beating;
• Shooting.

If someone has intentionally inflicted physical harm, you probably have a case. If you have been injured and are not sure if you have a case, or if you would like to know who can be held responsible, please contact us:

When a victim dies, the family can bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the perpetrator and any of the parties above that may be responsible. We have extensive experience with wrongful death cases. Ask us about compensation in a wrongful death case and about our recent recoveries for families who have lost a loved one.

Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations is the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit. Laws vary, but the statute of limitations is generally 2 or 3 years. In some states it is much longer. Your lawyer will need to investigate.

Can I Sue an Hotel or Apartment Landlord?

A hotel, motel or resort owner (Marriott, Hampton Inn, Super 8, etc.) can be sued if you are assaulted on property owned by the company.

Depending on the facts of your case, your landlord can be held liable (legally responsible) if you were raped, beaten up, or otherwise injured by another person in a hotel or in your apartment, a common area in the building, or the parking lot. In one of our recent cases, a woman was sexually assaulted in her apartment by an intruder. The landlord had not fixed a broken lock, which allowed the intruder entry into the apartment.

If you were harmed at a hotel or raped or beaten up in your apartment, you may be able to sue the hotel or your landlord for negligent security.

Can I Sue a Mall or Casino Child Care Center?

Depending on the facts, yes, you may have the right to sue on behalf of your child if he or she was inappropriately touched at a child care facility. Our attorneys have experience with these kinds of cases. Our law firm was involved with a Minnesota case where a 3-year-old boy was seriously injured at a casino child care center.  The alleged assailant was a 9-year-old boy.

Cameras caught the 9-year-old beating up the 3-year-old and then dragging him to a play tube, an enclosed play area, where the harm allegedly occurred. It’s unconscionable that this could happen. If anybody is standing within a few feet of the playground, they should be able to hear a child crying for help. The 3-year-old had bruises on his arm, which showed that he was either pulled or held down. He had finger marks on his neck and by his face.

A medical examination revealed that there was some indication of sexual contact.

In this type of case, we would allege that there wasn’t adequate supervision. In child care centers where there are enclosed play areas, those areas need to be monitored at all times, especially in a situation where there are children of varying ages.

In this Minnesota case, the mother of the 3-year-old was told that employees of the child care facility only check the play tubes once an hour. This is egregiously negligent and suggests that there may be a claim for punitive damages.

Can I Sue a Bar if I am Assaulted in the Building or Parking Lot?

Yes, there a number of situations where you could sue a bar. You may have a case if you were injured during a fight in the bar or outside of the building but on property owned by the bar. In addition, if a bar illegally served a person alcohol (a minor or while obviously intoxicated) and that person then injured you, you may have a claim even if you were not on bar property. In a case involving a drunken brawl, possible defendants could include the bar where the attacker consumed alcohol, the owner of the place where the brawl happened, and others. We have won multimillion-dollar amounts from bars for our clients. The facts of your case should be carefully examined by one of our lawyers.

Can I Sue a Therapist for Assault and Battery if There is Inappropriate Touching or a Threat of That?

Our attorneys recently settled a case involving a young woman who had an affair with her therapist. Given this imbalance of power in therapist patient relationships, Minnesota law recognizes that the victim is deemed incapable of consenting to the relationship. These therapist-patient abuse cases are often sex abuse claims. Read about one of our cases, a psychologist sexual abuse case involving an affair and about a therapist affair lawsuit.