When a member of the clergy sexually abuses a child, the immediate focus is on the individual perpetrator. But the civil legal system asks a broader question: who else had the power to prevent this, knew or should have known about the risk, and failed to act? In Augusta and throughout Georgia, churches and religious organizations can face substantial civil liability not just for the acts of abusive clergy members, but for the institutional decisions and failures that allowed those acts to occur and continue.
Negligent Supervision as a Foundation for Church Liability
Churches are institutions with supervisory authority over their clergy. That authority creates legal responsibility. When church leadership fails to adequately supervise clergy members who interact with children and vulnerable congregants, and that failure allows abuse to occur or continue, the church itself may be civilly liable under a negligent supervision theory.
This theory doesn’t require the church to have known with certainty that abuse was occurring. It requires showing that the church knew or should have known of facts that would put a reasonable institution on notice that a clergy member posed a risk, and that the church failed to take appropriate action in response.
Red flags that churches have historically ignored include:
- Prior complaints from congregants about a clergy member’s behavior with children
- Known boundary violations that weren’t addressed or documented
- Patterns of a clergy member seeking excessive private time with minors
- Prior abuse allegations at another parish or assignment that weren’t disclosed
The March 2023 report by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia documenting clergy abuse within the Catholic Church in Georgia identified cases dating back decades involving clergy who were reassigned rather than removed after abuse allegations. That pattern of institutional response is precisely what creates civil liability.
Negligent Retention and Transfer of Abusive Clergy
When a church becomes aware that a clergy member has engaged in abusive behavior and responds by transferring that person to a new assignment rather than removing them from ministry, the church takes on direct responsibility for the harm the transferred clergy member causes at the new location. The victims at the new assignment had no warning, no opportunity to protect themselves, and no knowledge of the risk that the institution’s decision created.
This is one of the most well-documented patterns in institutional clergy abuse litigation. A church that transfers an abusive priest to Augusta, for example, without disclosing prior abuse allegations to the new parish becomes legally responsible for what that priest does to children who had no idea about his history.
Negligent Hiring and Screening
Churches also face civil liability when they fail to conduct adequate background screening before placing clergy in positions of trust with children. This is particularly relevant for youth ministers, religious education directors, and other clergy members whose primary role involves working with minors. A church that places an individual with a history of abuse in a children’s ministry without conducting reasonable screening may face direct liability when that individual abuses again.
In Georgia, civil claims against churches for clergy abuse are pursued in superior court. They require demonstrating that the church’s own conduct, separate from the individual perpetrator’s acts, fell below a reasonable standard of care. Evidence from church records, internal communications, and personnel files is often central to establishing what the institution knew and when.
Andrew Rogers at Deitch + Rogers has devoted his career exclusively to representing crime victims in civil cases since 1998, having obtained some of the highest jury trial verdicts in Georgia history, including a $60 million Cobb County verdict in 2019. If you or a family member suffered abuse by clergy in the Augusta area, reach out to an Augusta clergy abuse lawyer to discuss what the institution knew and what civil legal options exist.
