Sexual Abuse

At KazLaw, we understand it takes an immense amount of courage to seek justice for the crime of sexual violence. Many of our clients have spent years, sometimes decades, suffering in silence and isolation. The clients we work with approach us not simply because they want financial compensation for their injuries; more importantly, they want validation, accountability, prevention, and truth. We understand that the process of justice can be just as important as the result.

Depending on the client’s wishes, it is not our general practice to rush to settlement, as many lawyers in this area of practice tend to do. Rather, we work with our clients to establish a litigation plan and strategy that will help them achieve their justice goals and, hopefully, help them move further along in their recovery journey. Recognizing that civil litigation can be particularly distressing for survivors of sexual violence who suffer from complex posttraumatic stress disorder, our team is trauma-informed and provides more than just impersonal legal services.

Sandra (Sandy) Kovacs is a leading plaintiffs’ personal injury trial lawyer in British Columbia and an adjunct professor teaching Law 433C: Special Topics in Tort Law (Personal Injury) at UBC Allard School of Law. Between 2005 and 2016 she worked in defence of civil tort actions, pivoting in 2016 to work exclusively for plaintiffs in complex injury claims, now with an almost exclusive focus on civil sexual violence. She is the co-founder of CLEBC’s recurring Sexual Violence (Civil) Conference. Ms. Kovacs achieved a record judge-made punitive damages award against a Roman Catholic Diocese in a historical abuse claim, the first involving an adult survivor in Canada, in Anderson v. Molon, [2020] B.C.J. No. 1327, 2020 BCSC 1247 (B.C.S.C.), and the largest compensatory damages judgment for a childhood sexual abuse survivor in N. (H.) v. School District No. 61 (Greater Victoria), [2024] B.C.J. No. 133, 2024 BCSC 128 (B.C.S.C.), aff’d [2025] BCCA 144,a case the Supreme Court of Canada will soon hear on the issue of institutional vicarious liability for child sexual abuse and grooming, revisiting the seminal decisions of Bazley v. Curry[1] and Jacobi v. Griffiths.[2]

Tanya Martin is a leading plaintiffs’ personal injury trial lawyer in British Columbia and an adjunct professor teaching Law 433C: Special Topics in Tort Law (Personal Injury) at UBC Allard School of Law. A sports enthusiast, she has experience handling sporting abuse claims, as well as other institutional abuse matters. She is responsible for leading decisions on the issue of damages assessments, including a leading decision that has paved the way for pecuniary claims for “unpaid” work, namely lost housekeeping and parenting capacity arising from injury. Tanya will be appearing alongside Sandy at the upcoming Supreme Court of Canada hearing in N. (H.) v. School District No. 61 (Greater Victoria), [2024] B.C.J. No. 133, 2024 BCSC 128 (B.C.S.C.), aff’d [2025] BCCA 144.

[1] Bazley v. Curry, [1999] S.C.J. No. 35, [1999] 2 S.C.R. 534.
[2] Jacobi v. Griffiths, [1999] 2 SCR 570.