Patients who are sexually assaulted during medical care can pursue a hospital sexual assault lawsuit against the person who harmed them — and against the hospital or facility that failed to stop it. These civil claims allow survivors to hold doctors, nurses, technicians, and the institutions that employ them accountable for abuse committed under the guise of treatment.
A hospital sexual assault lawsuit is separate from any criminal case. You do not need a police report, a criminal charge, or a conviction to bring sexual assault lawsuit.
We understand how much courage it takes to come forward. Our role is to listen, investigate what the institution knew, and fight to hold it accountable.
If you were sexually abused during medical care, you may be able to pursue compensation in a civil lawsuit. Call (310) 207-3233 or fill out our contact form for a free, confidential case review.
Hospital Sexual Assault Lawsuit Settlement Examples
In May 2025, Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian agreed to pay $750 million to 576 former patients of former OB-GYN Robert Hadden, who was convicted of federal sex crimes and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. The agreement brought total payouts in the Hadden matters to more than $1 billion, reported as the largest settlement of its kind involving a medical institution. Survivors alleged the institutions ignored complaints about Hadden as early as the 1990s and allowed him to keep practicing for years.
Another lawsuit that demonstrates medical institutions can be held accountable is the 2021 University of Southern California case, in which USC agreed to an $852 million settlement with 710 women who accused campus gynecologist George Tyndall of abuse. Combined with an earlier $215 million federal class-action settlement, USC's total payouts exceeded $1.1 billion.
Both cases are results obtained from public records. Wisner Baum did not handle these cases; they do not guarantee or predict any individual result.
A note before you continue: The sections below describe specific types of hospital sexual misconduct, including non-consensual touching and rape, in plain but direct terms. If you would rather speak with someone first, please call (310) 207-3233 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) for free, confidential support.
What is Medical Sexual Abuse?
Medical sexual abuse is any unwanted sexual contact, comment, or conduct that occurs during care or supervision. It can be committed by doctors, surgeons, nurses, technicians, aides, therapists, or other staff. Examples include:
- Touching of breasts, genitals, or other intimate areas that is not medically necessary for the exam or procedure.
- Performing an intimate examination without medical justification, proper consent, or an offered chaperone.
- Sexual comments, questions, or innuendo unrelated to your care.
- Requiring you to undress unnecessarily or failing to provide a gown or drape.
- Photographing or recording you while undressed without consent.
- Exposing themselves, or any other sexual contact during treatment.
These examples may trace back to a larger failure by the hospital or medical practice that ignored earlier complaints, skipped background checks, or failed to supervise a provider it had reason to watch.
What Is Medical Rape?
When abuse in a medical setting involves penetration, it may constitute rape. This includes penetration or attempted penetration without consent, and any penetration of a patient who cannot consent because they are unconscious, sedated, under anesthesia, or below the age of consent. Like other sexual assault, medical rape is a crime.
What Counts as Sexual Assault by a Doctor or Hospital Staff?
Patients in a hospital or care facility are uniquely vulnerable. Exams can involve intimate contact, patients are often undressed, sedated, or alone with a provider, and most people are taught to trust anyone in a white coat. Some providers exploit that trust to commit abuse under the guise of legitimate care. According to the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, fewer than 1 in 10 patients who are abused in a medical setting report it, often because they were never told what such misconduct looks like or are unsure whether what happened was abuse.
The Federation of State Medical Boards defines physician sexual misconduct as any behavior that exploits the doctor-patient relationship in a sexual way, and it stresses the inherent power imbalance that leaves patients exposed. Abuse is not limited to hospitals; it also happens in surgical centers, clinics, urgent-care and rapid-care facilities, dental and dermatology offices, physical therapy practices, imaging centers, and other outpatient settings. A report analyzing 15 years of National Practitioner Data Bank data found that nearly 83% of reported incidents occur in outpatient settings, where providers are more often unsupervised.
If you are unsure whether your experience qualifies for a claim, that uncertainty is common. Most people have no idea what abuse in a medical setting looks like. The important thing to remember is that you do not have to sort out your experience alone. A free, confidential conversation with our legal team can help you understand your options, and the decision about what to do next is entirely your own.
How Hospitals Can Be Held Liable for Sexual Assault
Abuse by a provider is rarely just one person's wrongdoing. Hospitals and medical groups have a duty to protect patients. If they breach that duty, the law allows survivors to hold the institution — not just the individual — accountable. Common legal theories in sexual assault lawsuits against hospitals include:
- Negligent hiring, supervision, or retention — hiring or keeping a provider the facility knew, or should have known, posed a risk to patients.
- Failure to report or act on complaints — ignoring patient reports, internal warnings, or known patterns of misconduct.
- Vicarious liability — holding an employer responsible for wrongful acts committed by its employees in certain circumstances.
- Negligent security or supervision of patients — liability can even extend to an assault committed by another patient, for example when a facility leaves an incapacitated patient unsupervised or fails to act on a known risk.
The medical licensing system has well-documented accountability gaps. Studies show that 81% of sexual misconduct cases against physicians are closed with no formal action taken, and only 2% result in official discipline. Of doctors who did lose their licenses, 74% were later permitted to return to practice. Only 11 U.S. states require medical boards to report physician sexual abuse to law enforcement.
Civil litigation is often the only mechanism for real accountability for survivors.
Do California's Medical Malpractice Caps (MICRA) Apply to Sexual Assault in Hospitals?
Generally, no. MICRA limits the non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering) recoverable in a medical malpractice case. But by its terms, the cap applies only to injuries based on professional negligence, and California courts have held it does not reach intentional torts such as medical battery.
Because sexual assault by a provider is intentional rather than negligent, it generally falls outside the cap — and in one case involving a psychiatric hospital, patients sexually assaulted by a staff member recovered damages not limited by MICRA.
How Long Do You Have to File a Hospital Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
Every claim has a statute of limitations; this is the legal deadline to file a lawsuit. Deadlines vary by state. In California, adult survivors generally have the later of 10 years from the assault or 3 years from when they discovered an injury was caused by it (Code of Civil Procedure § 340.16). California also has two “look-back” windows that allow claims that may otherwise be time-barred to proceed:
- AB 2777 (the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act) revives many otherwise-expired adult claims for assaults that occurred on or after January 1, 2009. This window closes December 31, 2026 (see the bill text).
- AB 250 (the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act) opened a second window running January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027 for adult survivors whose claims involve a private institution that concealed or covered up prior misconduct (see the bill text).
- Childhood abuse has its own rules: survivors of abuse before 2024 generally have until age 40 or 5 years from discovery (the framework AB 218 created), and there is no deadline at all for childhood abuse occurring on or after January 1, 2024 under California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1.
One important caveat: these revival windows generally do not apply to claims against public or government entities, such as county hospitals or state university health systems. Those claims follow separate, often much shorter, government-claim deadlines. If a public hospital may be involved, we highly encourage you to talk to a lawyer immediately.
Do I Qualify for a Hospital Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
Every case is different, and the only way to know for certain is to speak with an attorney. In general, you may be able to pursue a claim if:
- You were sexually abused, assaulted, or subjected to non-consensual sexual contact by a doctor, nurse, technician, aide, or other staff member during medical care.
- The abuse happened in a hospital, surgical center, clinic, urgent-care facility, or other medical or outpatient setting.
- A facility, employer, or medical group may share responsibility (for example, by negligently hiring or supervising the provider, ignoring complaints, or failing to report misconduct).
- Your claim is still within the statute of limitations, or it qualifies for one of the revival windows described above.
You need not have reported the abuse at the time, and you do not need a criminal case to move forward.
Compensation in a Hospital Sexual Assault Lawsuit
Sexual assault survivors may be eligible to pursue damages in a civil lawsuit. Which damages and the amount depend entirely on the facts of each case. They generally can include:
- Economic damages — medical and mental-health treatment, therapy and counseling, medications, and lost wages or lost earning capacity.
- Non-economic damages — pain and suffering, emotional distress, psychological trauma, and loss of enjoyment of life.
- Punitive damages — in cases of intentional misconduct or a reckless cover-up, additional damages meant to punish and deter the wrongdoer may be available.
How to Report Medical Sexual Abuse and Take Legal Action
Reporting helps protect you and others, and it can strengthen a future claim. You do not have to choose between reporting and pursuing a civil case — you can do both. You can report medical sexual abuse to:
- Local law enforcement (call 911 in an emergency).
- Your state medical board, which licenses and disciplines physicians — in California, the Medical Board of California.
- Your state attorney general's office.
- The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) for free, confidential support, operated by RAINN.
To pursue a legal claim, the basic steps are:
- Seek any medical or emotional care you need.
- Write down what you remember — dates, names, what was said, and who else was present.
- Preserve anything that could be evidence, such as appointment records, messages, or billing statements.
- Contact a sexual assault attorney for a free, confidential review of your options.
Remember, you are under no obligation to hire an attorney after a case consultation, and the conversation is confidential.
Why Choose Wisner Baum
Wisner Baum has represented survivors and injured families against some of the most powerful institutions in the country since 1985. Our trial lawyers have earned more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements, represented over 20,000 clients nationwide, and tried hundreds of cases.
We handle these cases on contingency. That means, there is no cost to talk to us, and if we do not win your case, you do not owe us anything.
If you were sexually assaulted or abused during medical care, you may have a claim against the provider and the facility that enabled them. Call (310) 207-3233 or fill out our contact form today for a free, confidential case evaluation.
