Support Is There, Whatever You Decide
If you are in immediate danger, call 999 or 112. The Rape Crisis Ireland 24-hour national helpline is 1800 778 888 — free, confidential, and for people of all genders. Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs) provide medical care whether or not you report to Gardaí. Support is there whatever you decide to do — including deciding nothing today.
The criminal justice system answers one question: whether the State can prove a crime beyond reasonable doubt. It was never the only legal answer to what happened to you. The civil claim is a different instrument with a different owner — you — and for many survivors, of every gender, that difference is the point: a case brought on your decision, run at your pace, decided on the balance of probabilities.
What a Civil Claim Is
Proceedings you bring — against the person responsible and, where the circumstances support it, against institutions or employers answerable for how the harm was made possible (the institutional dimension) — seeking damages for what was done and its consequences. Independent of the criminal process in every direction: available where no report was ever made, where a prosecution didn’t proceed, where a trial didn’t convict — because the civil standard is the balance of probabilities, and the question is yours, not the State’s (the differences explained). Where the assault happened at work, the employment routes run in parallel too: the workplace page.
The Three Honest Questions Every Assessment Covers
- Time: limits exist, and so do real extensions — date-of-knowledge principles, and statutory machinery for survivors of childhood abuse whose injury impaired their capacity to sue. Never assume you are out of time; never assume you have time;
- Recovery: who can actually be pursued — individual, institution, insurer — because damages are only worth what is recoverable, and you deserve that arithmetic before proceedings, not after;
- You: what the process involves, honestly described, at your pace, with pausing and stopping always available — because whether it is worth it is a personal calculation our job is to make informed.
Time limits in these cases are short, strict, and depend on your exact circumstances — WRC complaints generally run on months, civil claims on years, and important extensions exist, particularly for survivors of abuse. Never assume you are out of time, and never assume you have time: take advice promptly. Nothing on this page is legal advice for your situation.
How We Run These Files
Confidentially, from the first call and permanently. At your pace — the clocks are stated honestly, and never weaponised. With you prepared for every step before it happens, and nothing filed, sent or said without your instruction. And with the honest arithmetic maintained throughout: many claims resolve without hearing, settlement decisions are yours alone, and “I want to stop” is an instruction we follow, not argue with. The first conversation maps everything above onto your actual situation — and commits you to none of it.
Considering a Civil Claim?
One confidential conversation: your options, the honest arithmetic, and the clocks - with no obligation and no pressure, whatever you decide.
Call 01 5827148