The Role of Civil Lawsuits in Human Trafficking Cases |
Accountability is expanding beyond traffickers to the broader systems that allow exploitation to flourish.
Businesses facing significant financial and reputational risks are less likely to ignore human trafficking.
More businesses are implementing human trafficking awareness training and monitoring suspicious activities.
Days Inn in Philadelphia pays $24 million to survivors. Red Roof Inn is sued in federal court for $1 million by human trafficking survivors. Five Bay Area hotels sued for ignoring signs of human trafficking. Days Inn in Atlanta settles $5 million trafficking case. Headlines like these are becoming increasingly common.
For decades, efforts to combat human trafficking have primarily focused on prosecuting traffickers themselves. While criminal prosecutions remain essential, survivors and advocates increasingly recognize that trafficking often depends on a much broader network of businesses, institutions, and individuals that knowingly profit from exploitation or ignore obvious warning signs. In recent years, civil lawsuits have emerged as a powerful tool for holding third parties, such as motels, online platforms, and financial institutions, accountable for human trafficking. Civil suits have also provided survivors with another pathway to justice. Looking the other way won’t work anymore.
The Legal Foundation: The TVPRA
Congress first passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 to strengthen criminal penalties for human trafficking. In 2003, Congress expanded the law by creating a civil remedy that allows trafficking survivors to bring lawsuits in federal court. A particularly important development came with the 2008 reauthorization, which broadened liability to include third parties that knowingly benefit from trafficking activities (National Human Trafficking Hotline, 2023).
The TVPRA allows victims to sue businesses and organizations that financially benefit from trafficking and either knew or should have known that trafficking was occurring. Importantly, survivors do not need to prove that a business directly trafficked them. Instead, they can argue that the business profited from........