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Blankingship & Keith Attorneys Share Strategies to Protect Children at Statewide Seminar on Sexual Assault Litigation

News

November 3, 2025

Fairfax, Va. — Blankingship & Keith attorneys  Barkley Horn and Peter  Everett recently presented at the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association’s 2025 Sexual Assault Seminar, a continuing legal education program designed to help trial lawyers better advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and assault.

Their presentation, “Securing Justice for Children Victimized in Child Care Centers,” provided practical, critical   strategies for representing survivors and holding accountable the institutions that fail to protect them. Drawing on their experience representing families in high-profile abuse and negligence cases, Horn and Everett discussed the legal theories most effective in pursuing justice against childcare centers and other youth-serving organizations.

“These are among the most difficult and emotionally complex cases we handle,” said Everett. “When parents entrust their children to a school or daycare, they have every right to expect those environments to be safe. Our work focuses on ensuring accountability and, by identifying the breakdowns in protection that lead to these crimes,  we hope to provide childcare centers with the opportunity to reform their practices to   prevent-s future harm.”

The seminar, hosted in Richmond and virtually, gathered plaintiff’s attorneys from across Virginia for seven hours of training on topics ranging from trauma-informed advocacy to navigating insurance coverage and how to work with prosecutors pursuing parallel criminal charges.

Everett and Horn’s presentation emphasized the importance of understanding how special relationships, negligent hiring, and the failure to protect children through a variety of measures intersect in child abuse cases, as well as the critical importance of understanding the mental and behavioral health risks children victimized in the cases face, particularly in the long term.

Blankingship & Keith’s personal injury attorneys have handled numerous cases involving institutional negligence that enabled perpetrators to commit sexual and physical violence, including cases against  schools, childcare centers, colleges, religious organizations, hotels and malls that failed to protect vulnerable students, parishioners and patrons.

Read more about protecting your children from abuse at child care centers here.

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FAQ

Why are cases involving child care centers so complex?

They combine everything that’s hardest about this kind of work—deep emotional trauma, multiple layers of institutional responsibility, and often overlapping civil, criminal, and administrative issues. You’re not just representing a child; you’re representing a family that’s been shattered by a failure of trust.

What kinds of mistakes by childcare centers lead to civil liability?

Most commonly, a lack of proper vetting or supervision. We’ve seen employers who skip background checks, ignore red flags, or allow one-on-one situations that should never happen. In some cases, there are even broken security cameras or ignored abuse reports. These aren’t accidents—they’re preventable failures.

What legal tools do you rely on to hold institutions accountable?

We use well-established legal theories like negligent hiring and retention, failure to supervise, and breach of special relationship—meaning a duty exists because a child has been placed in someone’s care. Virginia law recognizes those duties, but recent court decisions have made them more difficult to prove. That’s why careful investigation and expert testimony are crucial.  We work with experts who can help hold these institutions accountable and help juries and our adversaries understand the mental and behavioral health risks sexual and physical assault victims face, such as post traumatic stress disorder.  

What’s the biggest misconception about these cases?

That only the perpetrator should be held accountable, not the institution.  The institution is there to protect children, first and foremost, and  when an institution cuts corners, ignores red flags, or buries a history of abuse, it needs to be held responsible.

What do you want parents to take away from your work?

Ask questions of the institution and your child, trust your instincts, and speak up when something doesn’t feel right. And if something terrible does happen, know that there are experienced advocates ready to help.

 

Learn how to identify, prevent, and respond to child abuse in daycare and preschool settings in our guide, “Protecting Your Child From Abuse | Blankingship & Keith, P.C.”

 Read more about protecting your children from abuse at child care centers.