Camden County
Sexual Abuse Lawyer in Camden, New Jersey
If you were sexually abused in the City of Camden, you can bring a civil claim against the person responsible and against the institution that allowed it. Camden is the county seat, so the courthouse where a Camden County claim is heard is in the city itself, at 101 South 5th Street.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. You decide what happens next, and you can stop at any point.
Camden, practically
Camden is the seat of Camden County, so unlike most cities on this site the courthouse is here rather than somewhere else. Civil claims are heard at the Camden County Hall of Justice, 101 South 5th Street, Camden, NJ 08103, telephone (856) 650-9100.
The office is in Mount Laurel, about twenty minutes away, and a first conversation is a phone call.
Local services
Free, confidential, independent of this office, and available whether or not you ever speak to a lawyer.
- SOLACE, the state-designated sexual violence program for Camden County, 24-hour line 856-227-1234.
- SERV, run by Center for Family Services for Camden, Gloucester and Cumberland, 1-866-295-7378, with crisis intervention, accompaniment and counseling.
- Camden County Police Department covers the City of Camden, which is unusual: most municipalities in the county have their own force.
What is different about the City of Camden
Camden holds a concentration of the institutions these claims involve. Cooper University Health Care, whose flagship hospital is here, is one of the largest in South Jersey, and claims involving medical providers turn on credentialing, chaperone policy and complaint handling decided at system level.
The city is also policed by the Camden County Police Department rather than a municipal force, which is worth knowing simply because people looking for where to report often cannot find a Camden City police department at all.
It is a city with a long history of institutional scrutiny, and a practical consequence follows: records, inspections and oversight reports about institutions here frequently exist in more depth than elsewhere, and they are obtainable inside a claim.
Institutions with long paper trails
Camden’s institutions have been the subject of sustained public oversight for decades, which has an effect people rarely anticipate when they are deciding whether to ask a question.
Inspection reports, monitoring records, consent arrangements and published reviews about schools, health providers and public agencies here frequently exist in more depth than they would elsewhere. Where an organization was already under scrutiny, what it knew and when it knew it is often documented by somebody other than the organization itself.
Who can be held responsible
The person who committed the abuse, and usually the organization that put them in a position to do it: how it hired, how it supervised, what it did when a concern was raised, and whether it reported what New Jersey law required. Each of those is a separate route to a claim, and each is proved with different documents.
How institutions are held liable for sexual abuse in New Jersey
How long do you have to file in New Jersey?
If you were abused as a child, you can generally bring a civil claim in New Jersey until your 55th birthday, or within seven years of realizing that your injuries are connected to the abuse, whichever of those is later.
If you were an adult when the abuse happened, the period is generally seven years from the incident, or seven years from the point at which you connected the harm to it.
New Jersey also ran a two-year lookback window, from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2021, during which claims that had already expired could be brought regardless of age. That window has closed. It is worth being clear about, because people hear that it closed and conclude they have missed everything, when the ordinary deadlines above are separate and often still leave years.
Which of these applies to you, and when your seven years started, depends on facts specific to you. A short confidential call will tell you where you actually stand.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. You decide what happens next, and you can stop at any point.
Questions people ask
Where would a Camden case be heard?
At the Camden County Hall of Justice, 101 South 5th Street, in the city itself, on (856) 650-9100.
Who do I report to in the City of Camden?
The Camden County Police Department covers the city rather than a municipal force. If someone is in immediate danger call 911.
What crisis services cover Camden?
SOLACE is the state-designated program, on 856-227-1234, 24 hours. SERV, covering Camden, Gloucester and Cumberland, is on 1-866-295-7378. Both are free and confidential.
Can I bring a claim against a hospital or health system?
In many circumstances, yes. Those claims usually turn on credentialing, supervision and how complaints were handled, which are decisions made at system level rather than by an individual clinician.
Can I bring a claim against a public school district?
In many circumstances, yes. The 2019 reform removed the standard government immunity protections for sexual abuse claims.
Is this page different from the Camden County page?
Yes. This one is about the city itself. The county page covers Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Gloucester Township and the other municipalities.