Liam Goggin
Director of Public Law Practice Area
English
School is supposed to be a safe, happy place full of learning and opportunities. But many people have suffered abuse at the hands of teachers, support staff, volunteers, and even fellow students. If you or your child have suffered from child abuse in schools, we know the courage it takes to speak to anyone about what you have endured.
Seeking compensation will not take away what has happened but it can help secure your future access to treatment should it be needed and provide a sense of justice over the abuser, and in this case, the school who should have kept you or your child safe.
We'll support you and handle your case with the compassion it deserves. We can also give you details of organisations that are specialists in providing support to child abuse in school survivors.
Our Abuse Claims Solicitors have been helping survivors for over three decades and can support you in taking the first steps towards making a civil claim, a criminal injuries claim, or claim through a historic abuse redress scheme. We'll do everything we can to protect your best interests and make the claims process clear and straightforward.
Contact us for a free case assessment, and we'll talk to you about how we can help. Ask about whether you qualify for Legal Aid or if we can deal with your claim on a No Win, No Fee basis.
Child abuse in schools can take on many forms, including:
You or your child may have experienced physical assault by a staff member or another student. Kicking, burning, slapping, pushing, hitting, and/or throwing or striking with objects are examples of physical abuse.
Sexual abuse is where a person engages in sexual contact with a person without their consent. These cases can be complex and distressing. Our Abuse Solicitors have the expertise and experience to manage your claim with sensitivity and compassion.
Name-calling, humiliation, harassment, threats of violence, sexting, revenge pornography and/or letting a child see another being abused are examples of emotional abuse. This can leave mental scars that are as painful and long-lasting as physical ones.
Child abuse in schools can involve a one-off incident or span several years. It can also involve multiple victims and abusers and can occur in all types of schools, including state, independent, boarding, and religious schools.
Regardless of how your abuse occurred, it was not your fault. We’ll do everything we can to ensure you get the compensation you need to help rebuild your life.
If the abuse occurred in an institutional setting, such as a school and was perpetrated by someone who worked there, it is often possible to bring a claim for abuse against that institution, if it can be shown that they are ‘vicariously liable’, i.e. they are legally responsible for the actions of the perpetrator. Institutional defendants will usually be insured against claims for abuse, meaning it is much more likely they will be able to pay any compensation awarded to you if your claim is successful than an individual abuser.
The first thing you should do is report your child’s abuse to the police. We’ll guide you through this as we know this is a hard thing to do. You should also tell the police if you believe someone at a school is abusing children.
We make the process for claiming compensation for child abuse in schools as easy and compassionate as possible. You can expect the following to happen:
We are passionate about helping survivors of child abuse in schools get compensation so they can move forward.. You can contact us in complete confidence anytime to discuss the claims process.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) is a government-funded organisation that provides compensation to the survivors of violent crime, including childhood abuse, provided specific criteria are met.
In the case of child abuse in schools, especially in private institutions that may have closed down, CICA can provide an avenue for compensation if there is no other route available. Contact us to see if you could have a criminal injury compensation claim.
We're rated‘Excellent’Children who have been abused in school have three years from their 18th birthday to bring a claim. If you have not brought a claim by your 21st birthday, the Court may not let your claim proceed.
The Courts can allow your claim to proceed out of time. Even though the three-year time limit has passed. As the Courts are aware that it often takes survivors of abuse a long time to talk about what happened to them. In some circumstances, the Court can make an exception to the limitation period and allow your claim to proceed out of time even if it happened many years ago, provided there can still be a fair trial and there were good reasons for the delay.
Time limitations under the CICA scheme are as follows:
Yes. This means you won’t pay any money upfront for your legal fees but you will have to pay for additional costs, known as Disbursements, like Court fees or expert reports fees. This can be covered by an insurance product called After the Event Insurance which would cover these costs for you. Your case handler will provide more detail about this.
You’ll sign a Conditional Fee Agreement or a Damages Based Agreement that says if you lose your case, you won’t pay our legal costs. If you win your case, the other side will pay for a proportion of our legal costs, but we will also deduct a success from your damages which will be capped at a percentage agreed in advance.
The person who abused you is unlikely to have the financial resources to pay you compensation. Therefore, most child abuse in school claims are claims brought against the entity responsible for the school, e.g., a local authority.
Domestic violence is often perceived only as physical acts of violence – But it’s much more complicated than that. A lot of the time, people witnessing or experiencing this kind of behaviour don’t know that it is domestic violence. It therefore often goes on unreported and is often ignored. But domestic violence can happen at any point in a person’s relationship and there are many forms that it can take.
Institutional abuse, also known as organisational abuse, is when an individual or group of individuals are neglected or suffer because of poor care practices within an organisation or care setting.
If you have experienced physical or sexual abuse and wish to make a claim under the Criminal Injuries Compensation (CIC) Scheme, contact our Abuse Claims Solicitors for free legal advice and a no-obligation discussion.
Fear of being publicly named stops many survivors from coming forward to claim compensation. We'll do everything we can to protect your privacy, including, if possible, applying for an Anonymity Order so your name and personal details won't be mentioned in court proceedings or media coverage of the case (if applicable).
Most child abuse in school compensation claims are settled privately. It would be rare for us to have to issue court proceedings, but if we do, you can trust that we'll provide all the support you need and fight tirelessly to get you the compensation you deserve.
Compensation for child abuse varies. Factors that can influence the amount include:
We'll make sure your compensation settlement reflects the seriousness of what's happened to you and is in line with current laws and guidelines that apply to your case.
We're rated‘Excellent’Most people we represent who have been abused at school bring a compensation claim to gain a sense of closure. Parents claiming on behalf of their child are often looking for justice. We know money may be far down your list of priorities, but it can allow you access to private counselling and support services to help you deal with what has happened to you and move forward.
Although it can be scary, anyone who has experienced child abuse at school should report the abuse to the police, even if it happened many years ago.
There are several support organisations dedicated to helping child abuse survivors, including:
We'll provide you with the contact details of these services so you can access further support if you wish.
Our Child Abuse Solicitors have a national reputation for being compassionate, caring, and driven to get survivors the compensation they need to move forward with their lives. Members of our child abuse team have worked on national inquiries and act as Trustees of abuse support services.
By choosing us, you can trust that we'll:
Our Child Abuse Solicitors have extensive experience in Legal Aid funding and can assist you with making an application. Legal aid is means tested so whether you qualify and how much you will receive will depend on your financial situation.
Evidence in child abuse claims is sometimes difficult to obtain as it is often the child's word against their abusers, especially when it happened many years ago. We will need to obtain school and medical records including police reports if there are any to help with the claim.
As your Solicitor, it is our role to gather the evidence needed to prove to the Court that, on the balance of probabilities, the abuse did happen and this caused you damage for which the Defendant needs to compensate you. If the abuse was caused by another student then you would also have to prove that the school were aware of the risk of harm and should have taken steps to prevent the abuse from happening.
If you are a parent whose child has been abused at school, you can bring a claim on their behalf if they are under 18 years old. You can also claim on behalf of someone who lacks mental capacity. This is known as acting as a Litigation Friend.
If the abuse happened many years ago, you could still make a compensation claim against the school or the local authority. If the abuse happened at a boarding school or independent school that no longer exists, you may be able to claim through the CICA scheme or established redress scheme.
We'll determine the best route to take to get compensation and provide all the support you need.
We’ll find out who was in charge of the school where the abuse happened and establish whether they breached their duty of care to you. This may be a local authority or a religious institution that ran a religious school. Rest assured, we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding out if there is a person or body who you can make a compensation claim against.
Your compensation claim may be delayed because of an ongoing investigation and trial but it will not prevent you from bringing a claim. If your abuser was found not guilty in a criminal trial, you can still bring a civil compensation claim against them.
Yes, if you're not happy with your current Child Abuse Solicitor, you can contact us to see if we can help. You may need to pay a portion of your former solicitor's legal costs if you choose to change legal advisors part-way through your claim.
The Crown Prosecution Service brings a criminal case following a police investigation. In contrast, a civil claim is begun by you, the survivor.
In a civil claim for child abuse, you need to show that, on the balance of probabilities, that you were abused, and the institution or local authority responsible for the school in which it happened breached their duty of care. If you succeed, the Court will award you compensation.
To obtain a criminal conviction, the Prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Defendant abused you, which is a much higher threshold.
It varies. The CICA scheme aims to resolve simple claims within 24-36 months. If your claim is against a local authority or private organisation such as an independent school, the process may take up to three years and sometimes longer, depending on the complexity of your case.
Yes, your school or the institution that runs your school has a duty of care to protect you from all abuse, including peer-to-peer abuse.
It depends if the abuse happened when you were in the school's care, for example, on a school trip. Things can become tricky if the abuse occured outside of school hours. We have extensive experience in complex child abuse claims and can provide expert legal advice and support in these types of situations.
Fill in the form below to get in touch with one of our dedicated team members, or call our team today on: 0808 239 0244
