Were you or your child sexually assaulted in a sports program in Atlanta, GA?
At Deitch + Rogers, we help survivors and their families understand their rights after a sports sexual assault in Atlanta, GA.
If a coach, trainer, teammate, or team official sexually assaulted you or your child, the organization that placed that person in a position of trust may share legal responsibility. Leagues, schools, clubs, and gyms have a duty to screen the adults they put in charge of athletes and to act on complaints. An Atlanta, GA sports sexual assault lawyer from our firm can investigate your case, and help you get compensation.
Our firm has represented crime victims in civil court for decades and handles nothing else. Andrew Rogers has practiced since 1988, and Gilbert Deitch since 1970. Consultations are free and confidential, and nothing you share with us obligates you to file a claim.
Sports Sexual Assault Lawyer Atlanta, GA
A sports sexual assault lawyer pursues civil claims for athletes who were abused by someone the program put in charge of them. The abuser is one defendant. The league, school, club, or facility that hired, credentialed, or failed to supervise that person is usually the more important one, because that is where the records are kept and where the ability to pay a judgment sits. Our work centers on what the organization knew, when it learned it, and what it did in response.
Law enforcement agencies across the Atlanta metropolitan area recorded 1,605 rapes in 2024, according to the GBI 2024 crime summary. Reported cases are only part of the picture. Abuse inside a team often stays hidden for years because the abuser controls playing time, scholarship recommendations, and the athlete’s standing with parents and teammates. A sports sexual assault attorney has to account for that dynamic when building the case.
Types of Sports Sexual Assault Cases We Handle in Atlanta, GA
Athletic programs concentrate authority in a small number of adults and give them private access to young people. When that access is abused, responsibility follows the organizational chart. Our Atlanta sports sexual assault attorneys handle claims arising from every level of competition.
- Youth league and club team abuse. Travel teams, rec leagues, and private clubs often run background checks inconsistently or not at all. We examine how the coach was recruited and who vouched for that person. We also ask whether parents’ earlier concerns were passed along or buried.
- High school athletics abuse. Public and private schools owe students supervision on the field, in the weight room, and during transport. Claims against public schools involve shorter notice deadlines and government immunity questions that must be addressed early.
- Campus sexual assaults. College athletic departments have their own compliance structures, and those records often show that complaints reached administrators long before any action was taken. Assaults by teammates at team housing or team events fall here as well.
- Athletic trainer and sports medicine abuse. Treatment rooms create a setting where inappropriate contact can be disguised as care. We review credentialing, chaperone policies, and whether the program required a second adult to be present.
- YMCA injuries. Swim lessons, youth basketball, and after-school athletics at YMCA branches place children with volunteers and part-time staff. Our firm has litigated a rape case arising from a YMCA facility.
- Gym and fitness facility assaults. Personal trainers, martial arts instructors, and gymnastics coaches operate with little oversight inside private businesses. The facility’s hiring and supervision practices are the focus of the claim.
- Hotel sexual assaults. Tournament travel puts athletes in hotel rooms with coaches and chaperones, far from home. The team’s travel policies and the hotel’s own security both come under review.
Why Choose Deitch + Rogers as my Sports Sexual Assault Lawyer in Atlanta, GA?
Institutional Accountability in Sexual Abuse Cases
Institutions defend these cases by isolating the abuser and calling him a rogue employee. Our firm’s cases show what happens when a jury sees the whole picture. We have recovered over $200 million for crime victims. Our results in sexual assault and institutional negligence matters include:
- $60 million verdict against a facility whose negligence allowed a sexual assault
- $9.2 million in a second institutional negligence case involving sexual assault
- $3.5 million in combined settlements for three sexual assault victims against one property
- $1.275 million where an apartment’s security failures led to a sexual assault
- $850,000 in a premises liability sexual assault claim
Sexual abuse cases against institutions are expensive to build. We pay those costs as they come due, including records subpoenas, forensic reviews, and testimony from treating professionals. Our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and if there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Attorneys Recognized for Crime Victim Advocacy
Gilbert Deitch has represented victims of violent crime for his entire career, which began with a University of Tennessee law degree in 1970. Network television has turned to him as a victims’ rights attorney, including NBC Nightly News, ABC’s 20/20, WSB-TV, and WAGA-TV. Atlanta Magazine has profiled his work as well. He is admitted in Georgia and Tennessee and belongs to the GTLA.
Andrew Rogers was among the charter members of the National Crime Victim Bar Association, and Super Lawyers has named him to its list every year from 2016 to 2024. His verdicts set the Georgia record for premises liability recoveries in four separate years. He finished law school at Georgia State University in 1988 and has spent the years since handling sexual assault claims against apartment owners, hotels, and institutions. Our sexual assault attorney in Atlanta, GA has the experience necessary to help you with your case.
Understanding Sports Sexual Assault Cases
What Are Important Aspects of a Sports Sexual Assault Case?
The organization’s own records usually decide these cases. We request them early and in full, before anyone has a reason to clean them up. Civil liability when coaches abuse athletes depends on a handful of questions:
- Whether a background check was run, and whether the program acted on what it found
- Prior complaints about the same person, including informal ones from parents or other athletes
- Written policies on one-on-one contact, travel, locker rooms, and electronic communication, and whether anyone enforced them
- Whether mandatory reporters inside the program notified authorities or handled the matter internally
- Whether the organization quietly moved the abuser to a different team or facility rather than removing that person
Organizations that hired known sexual offenders or ignored red flags face the greatest exposure. Reports involving an Olympic or Paralympic sport can also be made to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and that investigative file becomes evidence in the civil case.
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Sports Sexual Assault Cases
Georgia negligence law requires an organization to use reasonable care in selecting, supervising, and retaining the people it puts in charge of others. A program that hires without screening, keeps a coach after credible complaints, or fails to supervise private contact with athletes can be held liable for the harm that follows. The abuser remains personally liable as well, and both can be named in the same lawsuit.
Compensation covers medical treatment, counseling, and the cost of future care. It also covers lost earning capacity, which for a young athlete can include a lost scholarship or a derailed career. Pain, suffering, and emotional harm make up the largest part of most recoveries. Punitive damages are available when the evidence shows willful misconduct or conscious indifference to the risk, and institutions that covered for an abuser are the clearest candidates for that award. Georgia’s state-certified sexual assault centers provide counseling and advocacy at no cost while a claim is pending.
What Is the Sports Sexual Assault Case Timeline?
Deadlines depend on the survivor’s age at the time of the abuse. An adult generally has two years from the assault to file suit. A survivor abused as a minor has until age 23, or two years from the date the survivor recognized the connection between the abuse and the resulting injury. Claims filed after age 23 under that discovery rule carry a higher burden of proof against an organization, so the date of filing shapes the whole case. Public schools and government-run programs require written notice on a much shorter schedule.
- Confidential intake and a written plan for gathering records
- Preservation demands to the program, the school, and any governing body
- Filing the complaint, often under a pseudonym for the survivor
- Discovery, including depositions of coaches, administrators, and compliance staff
- Mediation, followed by trial if the institution won’t accept responsibility
What Should You Bring to Your Sports Sexual Assault Consultation?
Documents help, but the meeting does not depend on them. Come with whatever is accessible without adding stress.
- Any emails, texts, or written complaints sent to the coach, the program, or the school
- Rosters, schedules, and travel itineraries showing who was responsible on the dates in question
- Screenshots of messages from the abuser
- Counseling or medical records, if treatment has started
- A police report number or SafeSport case number, if a report was made
The consultation is free, and our attorneys will not ask you to repeat details you’re not ready to share. We’ll explain the deadlines that apply to your situation and describe how we limit retraumatization during the claim itself.
Reach Out to Deitch + Rogers to Schedule a Consultation
The sports organization that allowed your assault to happen has lawyers and an insurer already working on its side. You’re entitled to the same. Our firm offers a free and confidential consultation with an Atlanta sports sexual assault lawyer, and and our fees come from what we recover. Contact us today to schedule a conversation. We respond to new inquiries promptly and can meet in person or by phone.
(770) 588-0400 
1189 South Ponce de Leon Ave., NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30306 