Michigan Human Trafficking Survivor Attorney

If you are in danger right now, call 911. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential and can be reached at 1-888-373-7888 or by texting 233733. Nothing on this page needs to happen before you are safe.

If someone made money from selling you for sex, the law treats you as the person who was wronged, even if you were arrested along the way or the person who controlled you was never charged. Michigan and federal law both let survivors sue the trafficker, and federal law also reaches businesses that knowingly profited from a venture they knew or should have known was trafficking.

Sexual abuse attorneys at Vahdat Weisman Law represent trafficking survivors across Michigan. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free, confidential consultation. No attorney fee unless we recover for you.

Who Can Be Held Responsible

The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act gives you a civil lawsuit against two groups (18 USC 1595(a)):

• The perpetrator, meaning the person who recruited, moved, held, advertised, or sold you.
• Anyone who “knowingly benefits” financially or by receiving anything of value from participating in a venture that it “knew or should have known” was engaged in trafficking. Since a 2023 amendment, the statute also reaches anyone who attempts or conspires to benefit.

Depending on the facts, the second group can include a hotel or motel owner, the company managing the property, a franchisor, a website, or another business whose services were part of the exploitation. The case is filed in federal court, and you can recover damages and reasonable attorney’s fees. In an August 2026 forced labor case from West Michigan, the Sixth Circuit upheld a punitive damages award under the same statute (No. 25-2080).

What You Have to Show

For adults, federal sex trafficking means causing a commercial sex act through force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion (18 USC 1591(a)). “Coercion” includes threats of serious harm and “the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process” (18 USC 1591(e)(2)). A “commercial sex act” is any sex act for which anything of value is given to or received by any person, so it does not matter whether you ever saw the money (18 USC 1591(e)(3)).

If you were under 18, you don’t have to show any force, fraud, or coercion (18 USC 1591(a)). Michigan law is the same: recruiting or obtaining a minor for commercial sexual activity “by any means” is a crime “regardless of whether the person knows the age of the minor” (MCL 750.462e).

Can You Sue the Hotel Where You Were Trafficked?

Sometimes. A 2024 federal decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (K.O., 728 F Supp 3d 624 (ED Mich 2024)) shows how judges here analyze these claims. You have to show three things about each hotel:

1. It knowingly benefited. Room revenue from renting to the trafficker generally satisfies this.
2. It participated in a venture. The court looked for a continuous business relationship with the trafficker or a direct association, not a single anonymous rental.
3. It knew or should have known. This is a negligence-type standard, so actual knowledge is not required. But the court held that allegations that the hotels “were generally aware of sex trafficking in the hotel industry” were not enough. The knowledge has to connect to your situation.

The same decision shows what can be enough. Claims against one local operator went forward where the survivor described repeated bookings, staff holding rooms for her trafficker, and a specific moment when she begged employees for a phone while injured. Claims against other hotels without that kind of connection were dismissed.

The brand on the sign is a separate question. A franchisor that does not own or run the property is usually reached through agency law, which in Michigan asks whether it had the right to control day-to-day operations. In that 2024 decision, brand standards, training, and inspections alone did not establish that control. Another federal appeals court held that collecting royalties and observing signs of trafficking was not, without more, participation (Doe #1, 21 F4th 714 (11th Cir 2021)). The Sixth Circuit has not issued its own published rule for hotel cases.

So the details you remember matter: which properties, roughly when, who checked in, whether the same staff saw you repeatedly, whether anyone saw injuries or heard you ask for help.

Websites and Online Advertising

Websites usually have broad protection under Section 230, but a 2018 law preserves trafficking claims where the platform’s own conduct violates the sex trafficking statute (47 USC 230(e)(5)(A)). Courts have read that exception narrowly, requiring the website itself to have knowingly participated (Does 1-6, 51 F4th 1137 (9th Cir 2022)), though a claim against a software vendor to a classified-ad site was allowed to proceed (G.G., 76 F4th 544 (7th Cir 2023)).

Michigan’s Own Trafficking Lawsuit Law

Michigan’s Human Trafficking Victims Compensation Act, 2014 PA 339, makes anyone who violates the state’s trafficking statutes, MCL 750.462a to 750.462h, liable to you for economic and non-economic damages (MCL 752.983(1)). That includes pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical and psychological care, and lost earnings. You can recover without a physical injury, and recovery does not depend on whether the trafficker was ever charged or convicted (MCL 752.983(2), (4)).

“Services” expressly includes commercial sexual activity, and “forced” means obtained through force, fraud, or coercion (MCL 750.462a). In a criminal prosecution, your resistance or lack of resistance is irrelevant (MCL 750.462h). The state chapter also reaches someone who knowingly profits from an enterprise engaged in trafficking (MCL 750.462d), though it is written in terms of knowledge rather than the federal “should have known.”

How Long You Have to File

These cases often involve several clocks running at once, measured separately for each defendant.

If you were trafficked as a teenager, the federal clock may run until you turn 28. Courts measure conduct defendant by defendant, so later years of a long period may be inside the window while earlier ones are not. Michigan’s age-28 rule does not revive claims that had already expired before June 12, 2018 (McLain v Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing, 514 Mich 1 (2024)). Our statute of limitations page explains more.

If You Were Arrested for Prostitution While Being Trafficked

An arrest or conviction from that period does not bar a civil claim. Michigan also lets you ask the court that convicted you to set aside a conviction under MCL 750.448, 750.449 or 750.450, or a matching local ordinance, if you committed the offense “as a direct result of” being a trafficking victim (MCL 780.621(3)). You can apply at any time after the conviction; you must prove the connection by a preponderance of the evidence, and the prosecutor and Attorney General may respond (MCL 780.621d(6), (10), (12)). The judge has discretion, and the statute calls a set-aside “a privilege and conditional and is not a right” (MCL 780.621d(14)).

Do You Have to Face Your Trafficker?

You have choices about whom to sue. You can bring a claim against a business without naming the trafficker, but the trafficker’s conduct can still be used as evidence. If the trafficker is a defendant, you can depose them, and courts can enter protective orders limiting how the depositions are conducted. Federal Rule of Evidence 412 restricts evidence about your other sexual behavior unless its value substantially outweighs the harm to you.

If there is a related criminal investigation or prosecution, federal law pauses your TVPRA case until the criminal case is resolved at the trial-court level (18 USC 1595(b)). A pending investigation counts. A stay adds time but does not end the claim, and you decide whether to talk to police.

Will Your Name Be Public?

Many survivors file as “Jane Doe” or under initials. In federal court, this requires the judge’s permission, and the Sixth Circuit weighs factors including whether the case would force you to disclose information “of the utmost intimacy” (Doe v Porter, 370 F3d 558 (6th Cir 2004)). The request can be made at the start, before your name appears in any filing. Defendants still learn who you are so they can respond, and your lawyer can ask the court to limit how they use that information.

Other Help Available to You

Michigan’s Crime Victim Compensation program can help with certain out-of-pocket costs; you generally must file a claim within five years, and the statute does not require a prosecution (MCL 18.355). Federal law also offers immigration protections for some trafficking survivors; if that may apply to you, we will refer you to immigration counsel before any civil filing.

What Helps Your Case

Safety comes first; do not contact the trafficker or anyone connected to them. When you can, write down the hotels, addresses, approximate dates, phone numbers, and online ads you remember. Keep any texts, photos, or screenshots you still have. Records of medical visits, arrests, and court cases from that time can help establish the timeline. You do not have to gather any of it before calling.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Trafficking claims combine federal and Michigan law, with different clocks for different defendants and franchisor defenses that turn on specific facts. We handle them with the privacy they require. See also our pages on hotel sexual assault and child sexual abuse.

From our Livonia office, we represent clients throughout Michigan. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars. Our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, we work in English and Spanish, and we are available 24/7.

Frequently Asked Questions

• My trafficker was never charged. Can I still sue? Yes. Neither the federal statute nor Michigan’s act requires a criminal charge or conviction, and Michigan’s says so expressly (MCL 752.983(4)). If a criminal case is opened later, your federal claim may be paused while it is pending.
• It happened more than ten years ago. Is it too late? Possibly not. If you were under 18 at the time, the federal deadline runs until ten years after your 18th birthday, and trafficking that continued over years can leave later conduct inside the window. Each defendant is measured separately, so the answer needs dates and places.
• I was 16, and I said I wanted to go. Does that count against me? No. Federal and Michigan law do not require proof of force, fraud, or coercion when the person was a minor, and Michigan’s statute applies regardless of whether the trafficker knew your age (MCL 750.462e).

About the Author

Kara E. Weisman is a founding partner of Vahdat Weisman Law in Livonia and handles medical malpractice, wrongful death, civil rights, and personal injury claims. She clerked at the Ingham County Probate Court and the Federal Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, and is admitted to all Michigan state courts and the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.

Talk to a Michigan Human Trafficking Lawyer

If you were trafficked in Michigan, call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online. The conversation is free and confidential. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff. See also our sexual assault FAQs page.

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

Reviewed by Kara E. Weisman, Vahdat Weisman Law. Last reviewed October 2026.

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.