Child sexual abuse survivors can sometimes get victimized twice. First, they get abused. The second time may be by their own parent(s). By focusing more on a civil lawsuit to collect a sizable settlement or jury award instead of their child’s mental health, the parent may inadvertently or callously display indifference to their own child. As a result, the child may be retraumatized, sometimes feeling that their own actions contributed to their abuse. This is not, of course, to say that civil lawsuits are inappropriate in such circumstances. They may not be frivolous, but neither may they merit being brought. Nor is it about meeting the burden of proof. The point to emphasize is that the pursuit of such a lawsuit must be done with maximum regard for the child survivor. The key question: Will the lawsuit have a net beneficial therapeutic effect or a traumatizing effect?

To borrow a maxim from the field of medicine that all students in health care are taught and is a fundamental principle throughout the world, every advocate for sexual abuse survivors should heed the admonition “first do no harm.” In other words, when contemplating a civil lawsuit for sexual abuse, it is important to ask that, given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good.