Source: mensdaily
By Robert Franklin, Esq. | May 29, 2009
Not too long ago I wrote about a London man who was falsely charged with raping his former girlfriend 40 times. The video recordings of their encounters forced her to recant her false claims and he was saved from prison. At the time I said he should sue her, but the courts ruled (astonishingly) that he had no cause of action.
Now another falsely accused man has tried another route and prevailed. Read about it here (BBC, 5/13/09). An appelate court has held that the British crime victim's compensation scheme will compensate him even though he is not the victim of physical violence.
The woman in Clive Bishop's case was sentenced to 10 months in prison for her false allegation, and Bishop lost his taxi business as a result of the publicity her charges caused. So Bishop has financial losses that can be compensated. My guess is that if he were simply trying to recover for emotional and psychological damages, he'd have been out of luck, but the loss of income is compensable. Likewise, if he had to get counselling or medication, my guess is those expenses would also be reimbursed.
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia have crime victims compensation funds and it would be worthwhile for anyone who's been wrongly charged with rape (or any offense) to at least ask an attorney if he can recover for it. My experience is that the recoveries from those funds aren't great and they take a long time to process claims. But in many cases that's all there is.
But a simple finding of 'not guilty' won't suffice. To recover you have to be a victim of a crime which means, in the case of false allegations, that the perpetrator would have to have intentionally filed a false claim, i.e. knowing it to be false at the time of filing. But state laws are not all the same, so, if you think you've got a claim, check with a lawyer in your state.
Thanks to Malcolm for the heads-up.
