Pursuing Justice for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Washington Foster and Group Homes

Not reporting foster care abuse when it happened doesn’t prevent an adult survivor from exploring a civil claim. Many survivors don’t tell anyone about childhood sexual abuse until years or even decades later.

Some children may remain silent because they’re afraid they won’t be believed. Others might depend on the person abusing them, have been groomed or threatened into silence, or didn’t understand what was happening to them. Delayed disclosure is common among survivors of childhood sexual abuse and can result from fear, shame, confusion, trauma, or even a lack of trust in the adults and institutions that were supposed to protect them.

Importantly, a police report or criminal conviction is not required to pursue a civil claim. Your account matters, and other evidence may still be available even if you never told anyone at the time. Our attorneys can investigate what happened, identify who may be responsible, and assess the deadlines that apply to your claim.

If you were sexually abused in a foster or group home in Washington, Fuller & Fuller has the resources and experience necessary to investigate what evidence exists and guide you toward the best resolution.

Evidence in an adult foster care abuse case can come from many sources. These may include:

• Foster care and placement records
• Child Protective Services records
• Licensing or inspection records
• Prior complaints involving a foster or group home
• Prior allegations involving the same person
• Medical, counseling, and school records
• Statements from former foster children, siblings, caseworkers, teachers, and others
• Letters, emails, photographs, journals, and other personal records
• Most importantly, your own testimony

Records may still exist with Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, its predecessor agencies, schools, medical providers, or the organizations involved in a placement. Some records are confidential and require authorization or other legal steps to obtain. Fuller & Fuller can investigate those sources, locate people with relevant information, and build the strongest case possible for you.

You don’t have to personally know witnesses or have records to pursue a foster home sexual abuse claim. Your testimony alone is evidence.

Records that disappeared from your life years ago may still exist with government agencies, schools, medical providers, child-placement agencies, or other organizations. These can often be obtained during the course of your attorney’s investigation into your case.

An investigation might also reveal people you didn’t even realize had useful information. Another foster child might remember conditions in the home. A former caseworker may have documented concerns. There may have been previous complaints about a caregiver or facility.

Every case depends on its evidence, and there’s no guarantee that sufficient proof will be found. However, the fact that you left foster care without a file folder full of documents should never prevent you from exploring your options. Part of our job at Fuller & Fuller is finding evidence that our clients may have had no way of obtaining themselves.

Not remembering the details of childhood sexual abuse isn’t unusual. Trauma can affect the way experiences are processed and remembered. Fragmented or unclear memories of childhood sexual abuse are common, especially when the victim was very young.

You may remember a foster home but not the street address. You may remember what happened but not the month or year. You may remember someone’s first name but not their last.

That doesn’t mean you should guess or fill in missing details. Tell your attorney what you remember and be candid about what you don’t. This will help them decide how best to proceed.

Information, such as placement records, school records, medical records, and more, can help to establish a timeline. These same records may also help show where you were living and who was responsible for your care at specific times in your life.

At Fuller & Fuller, we understand that an adult survivor’s memories may not be neatly organized. We can review the surrounding records and circumstances to determine what evidence exists and how to proceed with your case.

Potentially. A foster care abuse case may involve more than the individual who committed the abuse.

Depending on the circumstances, questions may arise about whether an agency or other responsible organization properly screened caregivers and household members, investigated warning signs, supervised a placement, responded to complaints, or took steps to protect a child.  The records often show if the caseworker was checking on a child as often as was required by law.  Many victims of foster abuse report seeing their caseworker only rarely – or never – or in circumstances where they were not safe to speak out because their abuser was listening.

Washington requires background checks for foster caregivers and certain other people living in or having unsupervised access to homes. There are also licensing and supervision requirements for agencies that place children in foster homes.

These things may factor into a claim when the person who caused the harm was:

• A caregiver’s spouse, partner, child, relative, or household member
• An employee or volunteer at a group home or facility
• Another foster child

Determining responsibility requires a careful investigation into who knew what, when they knew it, and what steps they took to keep the child safe. At Fuller & Fuller, we carefully examine all available evidence to help identify each liable party and hold them accountable for the damage they have done.

Possibly, which is why privacy should be discussed with your sexual abuse attorney before a lawsuit is filed.

Court filings are generally public, and a lawsuit may disclose your name or sensitive details about your experiences. Before filing, we can discuss what information would become public and whether to request protections such as redaction or sealing. Those protections require a legal basis and, in some circumstances, a court order, so we will be candid about what can and cannot be kept private.

At Fuller & Fuller, we can’t promise that your case will remain confidential. What we can do is discuss those concerns early and honestly, explain all of your available options, and seek appropriate protections when the law permits. And importantly, your initial consultation with our firm is always free and confidential. We won’t pressure you into action or try to convince you how to proceed. We will honor your wishes, answer your questions fully, and help you make the best decision for your needs.

Possibly, but not probably.  Most lawsuits are against the State for failing to protect you, not against the abuser who may be absent from the jurisdiction or even deceased. Also, not every foster care sexual abuse case goes to trial. Filing a claim doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to someday sit across a courtroom from the person who harmed you.

If a case does proceed to trial, your testimony may be important. But providing testimony doesn’t have to be intimidating. Your attorney can help prepare you for each stage. There may also be circumstances in which protective measures can be requested.

At Fuller & Fuller, we believe survivors deserve to know what’s happening in their case and have a voice in all major decisions about its direction. Pursuing accountability shouldn’t mean surrendering control. We place protecting survivors from additional trauma as one of our highest priorities.