The press and the movie industry have prepared American juries for claims that protect victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault by bringing to life its devastating and long-term effects. The legal community has slowly learned to protect victims from abuse but courts are poised for a quick leap toward change. 

Emotional distress is an allegation inserted in every automobile accident complaint, but it is seldom an issue in negotiations or litigation and is rarely taken seriously by defense attorneys or insurance adjusters. The Catholic Priest molestation scandals and the corresponding million dollar settlements have awakened society to the reality that sexual abuse leaves deep, ugly scars on the souls of victims and can support huge settlements and jury awards.

Long before the Catholic priest scandals awakened the legal community to the reality and prevalence of sexual molestation, the popular news media and movie cinema occasionally voiced sexual assault and domestic abuse victims' cries of pain. 

For example, in 1984, Farah Fawcett's The Burning Bed demonstrated that severe domestic violence caused a woman to douse her husband with gasoline and set him on fire while asleep.

In 1987, Barbara Streisand's character in Nuts illustrated how a childhood of sexual molestation led to an adult life of prostitution. Later that same year, New York and eventually the entire country learned that Hetta Nessbaum was so battered, beaten, and bruised that she permitted her boyfriend/father of her daughter to beat her daughter, Lisa Steinberg, to death. Nessbaum was spared criminal charges because the prosecution recognized that she was a victim of the same abuse from her boyfriend that ended her daughter's life.

In 1991, Prince of Tides Nick Nolte's character gave society a sample of repressed memory syndrome when an adult Nolte uncovered, with the help of his therapist-girlfriend, Barbara Streisand, that brutal sexual violence such as a rape of a young boy could inflict such emotional pain that the sub-consciousness  represses the event.  Also in 1991, Sleeping with the Enemy's Julia Roberts illustrated that a woman's life can be in jeopardy from her own abusive husband.

Yet again, in 1994, Forest Gump's little princess Jenny's life was irreparably damaged by her abusive and molesting father. The abuse molded her into a nude-singing, self-destructive drug and sex addict who sought abusive relationships and eventually contracted the HIV virus and died from AIDS.

Then, in 1997, Good Will Hunting's Matt Damon featured a teen-aged genius who was abused by a foster parent. The abuse stunted Damon's emotional growth and paralyzed him with the fear of failure.

The following year, Nick Nolte in Affliction enacted how an abusive father scrambled the thinking and ability to function of a man whose inner rage caused him to lose his wife, daughter, loyal girlfriend, and eventually his sanity.

1999 cinema introduced Girl Interrupted.  In this film, Wynona Ryder's hospitalized, psychiatric patient-friend committed suicide when she could not recover from sexual molestation sustained at the hands of her father.

What was once taboo to discuss in homes or report on the news has taken center stage. With increasing frequency, people in the news and movie characters battle emotional injuries sustained from domestic abuse and sexual assault. We learn from Hetta Nussbaum, Prince of Tides, Forest Gump, Good Will Hunting, Affliction, and Girl Interrupted that these types of injuries cut deep and cause severe damage. At the same time these news stories and movies raise the national awareness of the emotional injuries born through sexual assault and domestic abuse, they also provide subtle legal lessons regarding victims' remedies.

Sadly, many messages teach sexual assault victims that the legal system blames them rather than the rapist. 1989's The Accused, starring Jodie Foster, highlighted women's frustration with the blame attributed to the woman in welcoming aggressive sexual advances. In 1991, victim's rights advocates also agonized with Patricia Bowman as William Kennedy Smith escaped responsibility for allegedly raping her in a highly publicized and televised rape trial from Palm Beach County, Florida. 

America experienced a different, painful lesson in 1995 when superstar athlete, movie actor, and public darling O.J. Simpson abused, terrorized, and killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman and escaped justice by manipulating and bastardizing racial and other controversial issues with Simpson's wealth and legal defense team. However, two years later in 1997, O.J. Simpson's civil trial taught us that where the criminal system does not afford justice, the civil system will provide compensation as he was slapped with an $8.5 million judgment.

O.J., Nuts and The Accused gave society and the legal community hints toward avenues of victim's compensation through third party liability.  Nuts showcased the not-so-good-Samaritan mother who "looked the other way" when her husband spent hours alone with their daughter. In a shocking revelation toward the end of the movie, Barbara Streisand confronted her mother and chastised her for not protecting her from her molesting father. Pennsylvania Civil attorneys can refer to General Accident Insurance Company of America v. Allen, et al, 708 A.2d 828 (Pa. Super 1998) to learn that such a guardian who fails to protect a minor to whom she owes a duty obligates her insurance company to defend and indemnify a judgment against her under the theory, "negligent infliction of emotional distress," provided she can defeat the named insured exclusions of the insurance policy.

The Accused gave victims another hint of third party liability when an assistant district attorney played by Kelly McGillis formulated a brilliant remedy for a frustrated victim of a gang rape. When three direct assailants were gently slapped on the wrist by a lenient criminal justice system, the victim, Jody Foster, felt she had been raped a second time; once by the rapists, another by the system. McGillis's character held bystanders criminally liable for "soliciting" the gang rape by cheering, chanting, and goading the rapists to perform their lewd and violating acts in an entertaining fashion on a pin ball machine in the back of a neighborhood bar. Stories such as in Nuts and The Accused illustrate that where a violent crime occurs, there is often more than one person legally responsible than the molester or assailant.

The significance of the O.J. Simpson civil case shines brighter on victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse when compared with the stories like Patricia Bowman/William Kennedy Smith and The Accused. Where victims of sexual assault or domestic violence do not succeed in bringing their tormentors to justice in the criminal justice system, the frustrated victim can find relief and recompense in the civil justice system. The reason for this irony is that criminal defendants are afforded protections which were granted after hundreds of years of oppression from over zealous governments, whereas civil defendants are not. In addition, civil trials carry a lighter burden of proof than criminal trials, preponderance of the evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt. The shortcoming of civil trials is that a civil defendant must have the financial means to satisfy a judgment against him, and personal injuries lawyers loathe pursuing matters where a judgment can not be satisfied immediately.

The relatively new legal authority set forth in General Accident Insurance Company of America v. Allen introduces a multi-billion dollar industry that has legally obligated itself to insure its policy holders against negligent infliction of emotional distress claims. The presence of insurance satisfies the problem of the lack of a deep pocket. Add to this equation a Commonwealth full of jurors who have been flooded with the recent news media blitz of the Catholic Priest molestation scandals. Further consider the legislative response of extending the statute of limitation to the age of 30 for child molestation victims, and an encouraging, and potentially thrilling phenomenon may be developing.

In summary, the barrier that has prevented much-maligned personal injury attorneys from bringing financial recompense to domestic abuse and sexual assault victims has been multi-fold: (1) the lack of deep pockets to satisfy potential judgments; (2) the quiet crime and silent victim, as sexual molestation and sex crimes have been morally taboo to discuss out loud; and (3) ignorance and a lack of public understanding of the severe, crippling psychological damage caused by domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Ironically, the multi-billion dollar industry which has created a crisis for doctors and patients across the country and in Pennsylvania can provide recompense for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault by examining the theory suggested by films like The Accused and Nuts where bystanders were legally and morally blamed for witnessing and failing to prevent crimes. The Burning Bed, Hetta Nessbaum, Sleeping with the Enemy, Prince of Tides, Forest Gump, and Girl Interrupted persistently remind potential jurors that society is no longer going to remain quiet about traditionally taboo topics, and is no longer uncomfortable to discuss them. Advances made by mental health care disciplines of counseling, psycho-therapy, and psychology reveal that emotional injury is a greater plague to society than physical illness. Indeed, even a powerful, proud mob boss like James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano needs his "shrink," Dr. Melfi, in order to survive and function in a dysfunctional environment.

The legal theory and cause of action, "negligent infliction of emotional distress," coupled with the presence of insurance policies which insure and indemnify negligent conduct can provide victims of severe emotional injury with resources to obtain expensive treatment to heal the deep wounds of emotional abuse. By studying insurance contract law which insures the type of careless conduct by a bystander who fails to prevent abuse in the face of a duty to protect, we can help empower victims and fortify a law which can deter abusers who too often damage the weak and most innocent of society without fear of reprisal.