Michigan Coach and Youth Sports Sexual Abuse Attorney

A coach, trainer, or team doctor can hold enormous influence over a young athlete and over the parents who trust them. When that person sexually abuses a child, you are left with questions that are hard to say out loud. Can you hold the club responsible? Does it matter that he was a volunteer? What about the waiver you signed? Is it too late if this happened at a high school twenty years ago?

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

Can You Sue the Club, School or Organization?

In many cases, you can, if the evidence shows the organization’s own negligence. Michigan does not make an employer automatically liable for an employee’s sexual assault, because that conduct falls outside the scope of the job (Zsigo v Hurley Medical Center, 475 Mich 215 (2006)). So your claim against a club, league, or school rests on what the organization itself did: how it screened and supervised the coach, and what it did with warnings.

Those claims turn on knowledge. An organization is responsible for negligent hiring or retention when it knew or should have known facts showing a relevant dangerous propensity (Hersh v Kentfield Builders, Inc., 385 Mich 410 (1971); Brown v Brown, 478 Mich 545 (2007)). That means an earlier complaint from another family, a coach removed from a prior club, a parent’s email to a director, or a rule against one-on-one contact that was never enforced.

A private travel club, gym, or academy is not a governmental agency, so the governmental immunity statute does not protect it (MCL 691.1407).

Institutions have been held to account. Michigan State University agreed in 2018 to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls abused by Larry Nassar, its former sports doctor. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee reached a roughly $380 million settlement with survivors in December 2021. The University of Michigan announced a $490 million settlement in January 2022 to resolve claims by 1,050 people involving a former team physician (Michigan Public, January 19, 2022). Those outcomes reflect their own facts and do not predict yours.

He Was a Volunteer. Does That Matter?

Usually less than you might expect. Negligent supervision asks what the organization knew and did about the person it put in charge of children, paid or not. The federal Volunteer Protection Act limits some claims against volunteers. Still, it does not affect the organization’s liability, and it does not protect a volunteer convicted of a sexual offense (42 USC 14503(d), (g)(1)(C)).

If a public school district or city recreation department ran the program, its volunteers fall under the same individual-immunity rules as its employees, with intentional torts analyzed separately (MCL 691.1407(2), (3)).

Schools and Colleges: Immunity and Title IX

A public school district or university is generally immune from tort liability while performing a governmental function. Individual employees can be reached where their conduct was grossly negligent and the proximate cause of your child’s injury, or under the separate rules for intentional torts (MCL 691.1407(1), (2)). Private schools and colleges have no governmental immunity.

Title IX adds a federal path. A school receiving federal funds can be liable for a staff member’s sexual abuse of a student when an official with authority to act had actual knowledge and responded with deliberate indifference (Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, 524 US 274 (1998)). Bills to narrow school immunity in abuse cases passed the Michigan Senate in 2025 but are not law.

What Federal SafeSport Rules Require, and Where They Stop

After the Nassar convictions, Congress passed the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017, signed in February 2018, and strengthened it with the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Act of 2020:

• The U.S. Center for SafeSport exercises jurisdiction over the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and each national governing body on safeguarding athletes from abuse (36 USC 220541(a)(1)(B)).
• A 24-hour reporting duty. An adult authorized by a national governing body, one of its members, or an amateur sports organization to interact with minor athletes must report suspected child abuse to the authorities designated under federal law “within 24 hours” (34 USC 20341(c)(9), (c)(12)).
• One-on-one limits. Covered amateur sports organizations must limit a minor athlete’s one-on-one contact with an adult to “an observable and interruptible distance from another adult,” except in emergencies (36 USC 220530(a)(2)).

The Center works through the Olympic and Paralympic movement, and the one-on-one rule reaches organizations that compete interstate or internationally (36 USC 220530(b)). Many school teams and town recreation programs fall outside both. Where the rules did apply, a club’s departure from them can be strong evidence of negligence.

What Michigan Criminal Law Says About Coaches

Michigan has no coach-specific sex offense. Coaches fall under general provisions:

• Under 16. Penetration of a child under 13 is first-degree criminal sexual conduct (MCL 750.520b(1)(a)). From 13 to 15, it is first-degree where the actor “is in a position of authority over the victim and used this authority to coerce the victim to submit,” or is a school employee, contractor, or non-student volunteer who used that status to gain access (MCL 750.520b(1)(b)(iii), (v)).
• Ages 16 and 17. The school-based provisions apply to teachers and administrators, as well as employees, contractors, and volunteers who used their status to gain access (MCL 750.520d(1)(e)).

If your child was 16 or 17 and the coach worked only for a private club, the age-based provisions do not apply, and whether the conduct counts as criminal sexual conduct depends on force, coercion, or incapacity. That affects your civil case, because Michigan’s longest filing periods depend on criminal sexual conduct.

For team physicians and athletic trainers, using medical treatment as a pretext is a recognized form of force or coercion (MCL 750.520b(1)(f)(iv)). Since October 10, 2023, MCL 750.90 makes it a felony for “an individual who undertakes medical treatment of a patient” to misrepresent sexual contact as medically necessary.

Since June 21, 2022, physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and athletic trainers have been mandated reporters of suspected child abuse (MCL 722.623(1)(a), as amended by 2022 PA 47). Coaches are not listed by title, though a coach who is also a teacher or school administrator is covered in that role. Civil liability for failing to report runs only to the child the report should have been about (Murdock v Higgins, 454 Mich 46 (1997)).

I Signed a Waiver for the Team. Does That End It?

No. Absent a statute, a parent cannot sign away a child’s injury claim in advance (Woodman v Kera LLC, 486 Mich 228 (2010)). The Legislature then created a narrow exception for recreational sports run by nongovernmental nonprofits, letting a parent release a sponsor or coach only for injury that “results solely from the inherent risks of the recreational activity,” and not for the released party’s own negligence (MCL 700.5109(2), (4)). Sexual abuse is not an inherent risk of any sport. No one in Michigan can contract away liability for gross negligence either (Lamp v Reynolds, 249 Mich App 591 (2002)).

Keep your copy anyway. Registration packets often include the club’s code of conduct and safeguarding policy.

How Long You Have to File

For abuse suffered as a minor, Michigan allows a claim for damages from criminal sexual conduct until the survivor turns 28, or within three years after the survivor discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, both the injury and its connection to the abuse, whichever is later (MCL 600.5851b(1)). No criminal charge or conviction is required (MCL 600.5851b(2)). That law took effect June 12, 2018, and it does not revive claims that had already expired before that date (McLain v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing, 514 Mich 1 (2024)).

A minor victim of certain federal offenses, including interstate travel for illicit sexual conduct and online enticement, may sue in federal court with no time limit for claims not already barred when a 2022 amendment took effect (18 USC 2255(a), (b)). If your child traveled to out-of-state tournaments, ask about it. Our sexual abuse statute of limitations page explains each clock.

Patterns Families Notice Afterward, and What to Keep

Abuse in sports often follows a pattern: one athlete singled out for extra attention or private training, gifts and rides home, private messages moved to personal apps, and secrecy framed as loyalty to the team. None of these alone proves abuse. The pattern matters because an organization that tolerated it may have had notice.

Without confronting anyone, save texts and social media messages, team app and email threads, rosters, and travel and hotel details, and write down names and dates. If your child is in danger now, call 911. Michigan’s child abuse hotline is 855-444-3911.

Your Child’s Privacy, and Whether They Will Testify

Civil cases involving the sexual abuse of a minor can proceed under the survivor’s initials, as published Michigan appellate decisions show, and courts can enter protective orders limiting how sensitive information is used (MCR 2.302(C)). A civil case usually involves a deposition, with your attorney present, and some cases resolve before trial. In a criminal case, Michigan provides a support person and other courtroom protections for young witnesses (MCL 600.2163a). Your child’s therapist can help you decide how and when to prepare.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

These cases depend on identifying every organization involved, whether each is private or governmental, which federal rules apply, and what it knew before the abuse. We handle them with discretion, at a pace that works for your family.

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

• It happened decades ago at my high school. Is it too late? It may be, but do not assume so. The age-28 and discovery rules do not revive claims that expired before June 12, 2018, and a public school district will raise governmental immunity. A federal claim under 18 USC 2255 or a claim against a private school may follow different rules, so your facts need to be reviewed.
• Do we have to go to the police to bring a civil case? No police report, charge, or conviction is required for a civil claim based on criminal sexual conduct (MCL 600.5851b(2)). Whether to report is your family’s decision, and we can help you think it through.
• Is a SafeSport complaint the same as a lawsuit? It is not. A SafeSport case can lead to sanctions such as suspension from the sport, but the federal statute creates no private right to sue (36 USC 220541(d)(3)), and compensation comes through a civil claim. The two can proceed at the same time.

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 Coach Sexual Abuse Lawyer

If a coach, athletic trainer, team doctor, or other adult in sports sexually abused you or your child, call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online. The conversation is free and confidential. See also our child sexual abuse, school and teacher sexual abuse, and doctor sexual assault pages.

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.