Michigan Doctor and Medical Provider Sexual Assault Lawyer

Many of the people who call about a medical provider start with the same sentence: I am not sure it was wrong. An exam that went somewhere it should not have. Touching with no gloves, no explanation, no chaperone. A procedure described as medical when nothing about it felt medical. Exam rooms teach patients to override their own instincts and defer to the professional, and abusers in medicine depend on exactly that.

You do not have to resolve that uncertainty alone, because the law does not measure these cases by the patient’s certainty in the moment. Michigan has criminal statutes written specifically for assault disguised as treatment, and medical experts who can say whether what happened to you had any clinical justification. Vahdat Weisman Law sexual assault attorneys represent patients assaulted by doctors and other medical professionals across Michigan. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free, confidential consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.

What Michigan Law Says About Assault Disguised as Medicine

Two criminal frameworks apply, and both matter to your civil case. Michigan’s criminal sexual conduct statutes have long provided that force or coercion includes engaging in medical treatment or examination “in a manner or for purposes that are medically recognized as unethical or unacceptable,” language found in MCL 750.520b(1)(f) and carried through the other CSC degrees. And in 2023, after the Nassar cases, Michigan enacted MCL 750.90, a felony aimed directly at providers who obtain sexual contact or penetration by misrepresenting it as necessary or beneficial medical treatment. A conviction now requires permanent revocation of the provider’s license.

The 2023 reforms went further for children: for medical treatment or examinations involving vaginal or anal penetration of a minor, Michigan now generally requires parental consent and a second person present, and providers must retain records of such services for fifteen years. Consent to a medical exam was never consent to sexual contact, and Michigan law now says so with unusual specificity. If your child’s exam violated these safeguards, that alone is worth a conversation.

Freezing Is Normal

Patients rarely resist in an exam room. You are partially dressed, in pain or afraid, in a room built around the provider’s authority, being told that what is happening is routine. Many survivors do not name what happened until later, sometimes after learning another patient reported the same provider. None of that is unusual, and none of it automatically ends a case, though delay does affect evidence and deadlines, which is a reason to talk to someone sooner rather than later even if you make no decisions.

The deadlines themselves have layers. Michigan generally allows ten years for civil claims arising from the criminal sexual conduct itself, and survivors abused as minors have until at least age 28, though the Michigan Supreme Court’s McLain decision limits how far these rules reach back for claims that expired before 2018. Claims against the hospital or practice can carry much shorter periods, some with pre-suit requirements measured in months. Mapping your specific dates is the first thing we do, and it costs nothing.

Is This a Medical Malpractice Case?

The answer decides the procedure, and it is more nuanced than most websites admit. Michigan classifies a claim by its substance: a claim is medical malpractice when it arises in a professional relationship and turns on medical judgment. An intentional sexual assault involves no medical judgment, so the claim against the abuser is generally an ordinary tort claim, without malpractice’s pre-suit notice, expert affidavit, or damage caps.

The claims against the institution are a different story, and this is where cases are won or lost at the pleading stage. Michigan courts have held that claims about how a hospital supervised, monitored, or credentialed a provider can sound in medical malpractice even when the underlying act was an assault, and a malpractice claim filed without the required notice of intent and affidavit of merit can be dismissed outright. Defendants push hard for the malpractice classification because its rules favor them. We plead these cases to satisfy both tracks from the beginning, because the court, not the label we choose, ultimately decides what each claim is.

The Institution Behind the Provider

The most important question is often not what the provider did but who knew. Complaints that reached a supervisor and stopped. Chaperone policies that existed on paper. A provider quietly moved between offices. Under Michigan law, an employer generally is not vicariously liable for an employee’s sexual assault, so the case against a hospital, health system, or practice group is built on its own conduct: negligent hiring, credentialing, supervision, retention, and failure to act on earlier complaints.

There is also a practical reason the institutional case matters, and candor requires saying it plainly: individual providers’ malpractice insurance policies almost universally exclude intentional criminal acts. Accountability that actually compensates a survivor usually runs through the institution whose negligence let the abuse happen. Where the provider worked for a public institution, a state university health system, for example, governmental immunity and special notice rules enter the picture, and where a university setting is involved, federal Title IX claims may add another track. These are exactly the routing decisions that need to be made early and correctly.

What To Do Now, in Order

If the assault was recent, your health comes first. Go to a hospital emergency department and ask for a sexual assault nurse examiner; Michigan hospitals must offer a forensic exam within 120 hours of an assault, its direct costs are not billed to you, and having the exam does not commit you to prosecuting or suing anyone. It preserves evidence and choices.

Report to police when you are able. A report is not required for the forensic exam or for a civil claim, but it helps both. As for the state licensing system: a complaint to the Michigan Bureau of Professional Licensing at LARA can trigger an investigation that protects other patients, and you can check any provider’s license history through LARA’s public lookup. Because anything you write in a complaint can later be scrutinized in a civil case, our advice is to involve a lawyer before filing it, not instead of filing it. We regularly help clients prepare LARA complaints so the record starts accurate and consistent.

Then write down what you remember, with dates, and keep appointment records, portal messages, and the names of anyone you told. These cases are corroborated through ordinary paperwork more often than people expect.

What Compensation Can a Survivor Recover?

Michigan law compensates therapy and psychiatric care, medical costs, lost income where the trauma disrupted work, and the pain, humiliation, and loss of trust that follow an assault by someone you were required to trust. Many survivors describe a specific, lasting injury: they can no longer bring themselves to see doctors at all, and their health suffers for it. That harm is real and compensable, and treating clinicians are often its most powerful witnesses. Michigan does not allow punitive damages in the punishment sense, though exemplary damages can compensate the humiliation and indignity of intentional wrongs. Where the provider is convicted, criminal restitution and the state’s Crime Victim Compensation program can also help with counseling costs, and we help clients pursue both.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

These cases sit where assault law, medical malpractice procedure, and institutional negligence meet, and pleading them wrong at the start can cost a survivor the strongest parts of the claim. We handle that complexity, and we do it with the discretion these cases demand: confidential consultations, pseudonym filings where the court allows, and a pace you control.

Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, our phones are answered 24/7, and we serve clients in English and Spanish from our Livonia office. Related pages: child sexual abuse and our drug-facilitated sexual assault page.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I know whether what happened was actually improper? You do not have to know. Whether an exam had a legitimate medical purpose is a question for medical standards and medical experts, not for the patient’s certainty in the moment. Describe what happened to us confidentially, and we will find out whether it had any clinical justification. Asking costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
• The provider was a nurse, chiropractor, dentist, or therapist, not a doctor. Does that change anything? The core principles are the same: treatment settings are not license for sexual contact, and Michigan’s criminal and licensing systems cover the licensed health professions broadly. The details can differ by profession, and mental health settings have their own specific rules, so bring us the specifics.
• Will filing a complaint with LARA hurt my civil lawsuit? Not if it is done carefully. The licensing process runs separately from the civil case and can generate useful investigation. But statements made in a complaint become part of a record the defense will read, which is why we help clients prepare LARA complaints rather than discouraging them.
• I kept seeing the provider afterward. Does that ruin my case? No. Continuing care is common, especially when the provider controls something you need: pain treatment, a pregnancy, a specialist referral. Abusers select for exactly that dependence. The defense will raise it, and it is context a jury can understand when it is explained honestly.
• Can I sue the hospital or just the individual provider? Often both, on different theories with different deadlines. The provider is liable for the assault; the institution for its own failures in screening, supervision, and complaint handling. The institutional claim is frequently where meaningful compensation lies, partly because individual insurance rarely covers intentional acts, and it is also the claim with the trickiest procedural requirements. That combination is the reason not to wait.

Talk to a Michigan Medical Provider Sexual Assault Lawyer Today

If something happened in an exam room that should not have, you deserve a clear answer about what it was and what your options are. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.