San Diego Child Abuse Lawyer

WHAT COUNTS AS CHILD ABUSE IN A CALIFORNIA CIVIL CASE

A civil child abuse case asks one question: who failed this child, and what do they owe. It is separate from any criminal case. California civil law recognizes four broad categories, and a single set of facts often involves more than one.

PHYSICAL ABUSE

Non-accidental physical harm to a child. In a civil case this usually surfaces through medical records, photographs, school reports, or a mandated reporter’s call. Injuries that do not match the explanation given for them are the common thread.

NEGLECT

Failure to provide what a child depends on. Food, shelter, supervision, medical care, protection. Neglect claims often involve a facility, not a parent. A daycare that leaves a toddler unsupervised, a group home that ignores a known danger, a camp that never checked a counselor’s background.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Sustained conduct that damages a child’s emotional development or sense of safety. It is harder to document than physical harm. It is not impossible. Therapy records, teacher observations, and changes in behavior noted at the time all carry weight.

SEXUAL ABUSE

California treats childhood sexual assault under its own statute, with its own deadlines. Those deadlines run far longer. Our San Diego child sexual abuse page covers that track in detail.

A CIVIL CASE IS NOT A CRIMINAL CASE

The two run on separate tracks. A criminal case is brought by the District Attorney and asks whether a person should be punished. A civil case is brought by the family and asks who is financially responsible for the harm. You do not need a conviction to bring a civil claim, and a case the DA declines to file can still support one.

The standard of proof is different too. Criminal cases require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil case turns on a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. That gap is why civil claims sometimes succeed where a prosecution did not.

A civil case also reaches further. The DA charges the person who committed the abuse. A civil case can also reach the school, the daycare, the church, the youth program, or the county agency whose choices put that person in a room with a child.

WHEN AN INSTITUTION IS LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE

Most institutional cases come down to what the organization knew and what it did about it. Three theories carry the weight.

NEGLIGENT HIRING

The organization brought someone on without the screening a reasonable one would have done. No background check. No reference calls, no follow-up on a gap in an employment history. The question is what a routine check would have turned up.

NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION

The organization put an adult and a child together without the oversight the setting required. One-adult-alone-with-one-child policies, unmonitored transport, off-site trips with no second staff member. Written policies matter here. So does whether anyone followed them.

NEGLIGENT RETENTION

Someone reported a concern and the organization kept the person anyway. The tells are familiar. Prior complaints, a transfer instead of an investigation, a personnel file with a gap where a response should be. Retention claims can be the strongest, because the record shows the warning arrived and nothing changed.

CLAIMS AGAINST SCHOOLS, COUNTIES, AND OTHER PUBLIC AGENCIES

Suing a public agency in California runs on different rules, and the deadlines are the part families get wrong. For most claims against a school district, a county, or a city, including physical abuse and neglect claims, you generally have to present a written claim to that entity within six months before you can file a lawsuit. Miss it and the claim can be barred no matter how strong the underlying facts are. Missing it is not always fatal. California allows an application to file a late claim, generally within a year, and a court can grant relief in defined circumstances. Childhood sexual assault claims are the exception. Assembly Bill 218 removed the government claim requirement for those, so a survivor does not have to clear that hurdle first.

That change reshaped who gets held accountable here. AB 218 also reopened claims that had expired, and public agencies have been answering for decades-old conduct ever since. In April 2025 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a settlement of thousands of claims arising from its juvenile facilities and the former MacLaren Children’s Center, with allegations reaching back to 1959. That was not our case. No other settlement, of any size, predicts what a particular claim is worth.

The rules may not stay where they are. As of August 2026 the Legislature is weighing changes to AB 218 pushed by school districts and other public agencies, with proposals reported to include capping pain and suffering awards at four times economic damages and requiring clear and convincing proof of liability for abuse alleged more than twenty years after it happened. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas assigned a group of lawmakers to work on it. Nothing has passed. But a family sitting on a possible claim against a public agency should know that the ground is being renegotiated, and that waiting has a cost beyond the ordinary one.

WHAT A FAMILY CAN RECOVER

Damages in a child abuse case are meant to cover what the harm actually costs, now and later. That includes medical and psychiatric treatment already received and the cost of care the child is likely to need for years. Therapy is usually the largest ongoing item. It also includes non-economic damages for pain, emotional distress, and the loss of a normal childhood.

Where a child’s injuries affect their ability to work as an adult, lost future earning capacity can be part of the claim. Economists and life care planners build those numbers. They are not guesses.

Punitive damages are rare. California allows them only where there is clear and convincing evidence of oppression, fraud, or malice, which in practice means conduct well beyond ordinary carelessness. An institution that buried a complaint is the situation where the question comes up.

WHAT TO DO NOW

Safety first, then the record. The steps below are in the order they matter.

If a child is in immediate danger, call 911. In San Diego County the Child Abuse Hotline runs 24 hours at (858) 560-2191. Calling from elsewhere in California, use (800) 344-6000. Reporting is separate from any legal claim. You do not need a lawyer to do it.

Get the child medical and psychological care. Treatment comes first for its own sake. It also creates a contemporaneous record from professionals, which is the kind of evidence that holds up years later.

Write down what you know while you know it. Dates, names, what was said, who else was present, what you reported and to whom. Memory fades and staff turn over. A note made this week is worth more than a recollection assembled next year.

Ask the institution for records in writing. Incident reports, attendance and sign-out sheets, staffing schedules, complaint logs, personnel policies. Put the request in writing so there is a record that you made it.

Do not sign a release or give a recorded statement. Not to the organization, not to its insurer. Have a lawyer read it first.

SAN DIEGO CHILD ABUSE FAQS

HOW LONG DOES MY FAMILY HAVE TO FILE A CLAIM?

It depends on the type of abuse, and the difference is large. Childhood sexual assault has its own long deadline in California, and for assault occurring on or after January 1, 2024 the civil statute of limitations was eliminated entirely. Other child abuse and neglect claims generally follow the two-year personal injury deadline, and a minor’s clock is paused until they turn 18. Claims against a public agency add the six-month written claim requirement described above, except for childhood sexual assault. The rules split several ways. Get the specific facts in front of a lawyer rather than working from a general rule.

CAN WE BRING A CIVIL CASE IF NO ONE WAS CHARGED?

Yes. A civil claim does not depend on a criminal charge, a conviction, or a police report. Prosecutors decline cases for reasons that have nothing to do with whether the abuse happened, including the passage of time and the strain of putting a child on the stand. The civil standard of proof is also lower.

WHO CAN FILE ON BEHALF OF A CHILD?

A parent or legal guardian normally petitions the court to be appointed the child’s guardian ad litem, the representative who brings the case on the child’s behalf. A survivor who is already an adult files in their own name. California courts also review and approve settlements involving minors. That is a protection, not an obstacle.

WILL MY CHILD HAVE TO TESTIFY IN COURT?

Often no. Most civil cases resolve before trial, and where a child’s account is needed there are procedures designed to limit the burden, including written discovery, recorded testimony taken outside a courtroom, and expert testimony that carries part of the load. Talk through this early. How a case is built affects how much a child is ever asked to do.

WHAT DOES A CHILD ABUSE LAWYER COST?

Nothing up front. Gomez Trial Attorneys handles these cases on contingency, so there is no attorney’s fee unless the case recovers money. The firm advances case costs. Whether any of those costs are charged back if there is no recovery is set out in the written fee agreement, and we go through it with you before you sign. The first conversation is free and confidential.

TALK TO A SAN DIEGO CHILD ABUSE LAWYER

Nothing has to be decided today. A first conversation is about what happened, what records exist, and which deadlines are running, and it commits you to nothing. Gomez Trial Attorneys brings these claims against individuals and institutions across San Diego County, and our children’s rights and San Diego personal injury teams work these cases together.

Call 833-GET-GOMEZ, in English or Spanish, or reach us through our contact page. Records get destroyed on retention schedules and staff move on. Ask early. The sooner someone starts, the more of the record survives.

This page is general information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. We do not give medical advice.