The criminal case belongs to the state. The civil case belongs to you. It moves at your pace, it stays in your control, and it can reach not only the person who hurt you but the businesses whose negligence made the assault possible. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including $6.8 Million for a survivor of sexual assault on negligent security and premises liability theories. Every consultation is free. Every consultation is confidential.
Your Case, Your Decision
The criminal system and the civil system do different work. The criminal case punishes: a prosecutor decides whether to file it, the state controls it, and its outcome is a sentence. You are a witness in that case, not a party. The civil case compensates: you decide whether to file it, you control it, and its outcome is accountability measured in the resources you need to rebuild. You are the party. Nothing happens without your consent, from the first filing to the final decision to settle or to try the case.
The two systems also answer to different standards of proof, and the difference matters. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard the law knows. A civil case requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence: more likely than not. That is why a civil case can succeed where no charges were filed, where charges were dropped, or where a criminal trial did not end in conviction. The absence of a conviction does not mean the absence of a case.
You do not need a police report to call us. You do not need to have told anyone. You need only to be ready to have one confidential conversation, and readiness is yours to define.
Accountability
California law begins with a simple rule: under Civil Code section 1714(a), everyone is responsible for injuries caused by their failure to use ordinary care. That rule reaches businesses. A bar that overserved and looked away. An apartment complex that left the gate broken and the garage dark after residents complained. A hotel that handed out room access carelessly. An employer that ignored warnings about the person it put in a position of power. When an assault was made possible by a business's negligence, the business answers for it.
These are negligent security and premises liability cases, and they are among the most important cases we handle, for a practical reason: the assailant often has nothing, but the business has insurance, and the business had the power to prevent what happened. This firm recovered $6.8 Million for a survivor of sexual assault on exactly these theories: negligent security and premises liability. The case was built on what the property knew, what it should have done, and what it chose not to spend.
Proving these cases means investigating the property, not the survivor: prior incidents, prior complaints, security staffing, lighting, locks, cameras, and the paper trail showing what the owner knew. That investigative work is the core of our premises liability practice, and it is where these cases are won.
Privacy
The fear of exposure keeps more survivors from calling than any other single thing. So we address it first, before strategy, before value, before anything else.
Your consultation is confidential whether or not you ever hire us. If you do move forward, California procedure provides ways to protect a survivor's identity and to limit what becomes part of the public record, and the available protections are a conversation we have with you at the start, not an afterthought. Nothing is filed until you have made your decision with a full understanding of what will be public, what will not, and what choices remain yours along the way.
The same discretion governs how we work. We contact who you authorize us to contact. We investigate quietly. If you prefer that calls come at certain hours, or that nothing arrive at your home, we build the representation around that. Survivors have carried enough decisions made by other people. This process will not add to them.
When you are ready to talk, we are ready to listen.
Confidential Case ReviewThe Deadline That Changed
For years, survivors lost their claims to short deadlines that never accounted for how long it takes to be ready. California changed that. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 340.16, for assaults occurring on or after January 1, 2019, a civil claim may generally be brought within ten years of the assault, or within three years of the date you discovered an injury or illness resulting from it, whichever is later.
Read that again, because it changes what many survivors assume: the window is measured in years, not months, and it accounts for the reality that the harm is often understood long after the event. But the timing rules are technical. Different rules can apply to assaults before 2019, to claims against certain kinds of defendants, and to particular circumstances that only a careful review can sort out. A deadline question is never something to resolve by guessing, and it is never something to resolve alone.
So here is the only rule we ask you to remember: do not decide on your own that it is too late. That decision has been wrong for many survivors who assumed the door was closed. Call, tell us the year it happened, and let us do the analysis. The call costs nothing, and it is confidential.
Compensation
No amount of money undoes what happened. What a civil recovery does is fund the rebuilding, on your terms, without asking anyone's permission:
No honest lawyer quotes a number at a first call, and we will not. What we will do is build each component with care, and make the responsible parties price the case as if a jury will hear it. That is the same trial-first approach behind every result in our personal injury practice.
How We Work
Survivors ask what the process will demand of them. The honest answer: less than you fear, and nothing without your consent. Here is what working with us looks like:
You speak with Tom directly, in English, Armenian, or Farsi. You share what you are comfortable sharing. There is no intake script and no pressure to relive anything before you are ready.
Take the time you need. The decision to move forward is yours, and so is the decision not to. Either way, what you told us stays confidential.
Security records, prior complaints, staffing, lighting, and the property's paper trail. The investigation focuses on the defendants and what they knew, and it proceeds with discretion.
The defense, the insurers, and their lawyers deal with us. You never face them alone, and you are prepared thoroughly before anything the process does require of you.
Settlement decisions are yours. Our job is to make sure that when you make them, you are choosing between strong options, with a case the other side knows is ready for trial.
You can learn more about the firm and its results at vertanouslaw.com. Or skip the reading and call. Either way, the conversation is confidential, and it is yours.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions Survivors Ask
Yes. The civil case does not require a conviction, an arrest, or even a police report. The criminal system requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil system requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. A civil case can succeed where charges were never filed, were dropped, or did not end in conviction.
Often, yes. California law holds everyone responsible for harm caused by their failure to use ordinary care. A business that ignored broken locks, dark parking areas, prior complaints, or known dangers on its property can be held accountable for an assault its negligence made possible. Our firm recovered $6.8 Million for a survivor on exactly these theories.
Privacy is part of the case plan from the first conversation. California procedure provides ways to protect a survivor's identity and limit what becomes public, and nothing is filed until we have discussed those protections with you and you have made your decision. Your consultation is confidential whether or not you ever move forward.
For assaults occurring on or after January 1, 2019, Code of Civil Procedure section 340.16 generally allows ten years from the assault, or three years from the date you discovered an injury or illness resulting from it, whichever is later. The timing rules are technical, and different rules can apply to older assaults. Do not decide on your own that it is too late. Call and let us look.
Therapy and psychological care, past and future. Medical expenses. Lost earnings and lost career ground. And the human damages: the fear, the lost sense of safety, and the ways daily life changed. No honest lawyer quotes a number at a first call, but every component is real, and building each one carefully is the job.
Less than you may fear. You speak with Tom directly, share only what you are comfortable sharing, and decide whether to proceed with no pressure from us. We handle every contact with the defense so you never face them alone, and settlement decisions remain yours at every stage. The case moves at your pace.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free and confidential, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, we represent survivors across the San Gabriel Valley and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
