You Can Be Sued for Unprotected Sex

You can be sued for infecting a person with a sexually transmitted disease and sentenced to prison for a period from 10 to 30 years.

The USA – land of lawsuits

We all know that in the US people can get sued for anything and that the small print is usually longer than a novel. A lot of money is awarded in courts in the most incredible and impossible cases. Lately, there’ve been various lawsuits where one of the partners sues the other over a sexually transmitted infection. These cases are quite tragic, since HIV infection is actually a death sentence.

Bridget met John at a business conference. It was love at first sight and when the relationship became more serious, John suggested to Bridget that they have sex without using a condom. Soon they got married and when they were on their honey moon, they both felt sick. After returning home, she went to see her GP who diagnosed her condition as HIV infection. Her husband had the same diagnosis. First she blamed herself, but later she found e-mail messages that provided a slightly different truth. Namely, her husband had unprotected sex with homosexual men during their relationship. John attributed the blame to her and she blamed him. For John to become criminally liable, he would have to infect Bridget on purpose. As that is very difficult to prove, he was faced with a civil action. The court upheld Bridget’s claim on the basis of very interesting arguments. He was sued for the fact that he should’ve known that he could infect her because Bridget’s lawyers couldn’t prove that he actually knew about his infection. However, he should have known about it and that’s why she won the lawsuit.

Criminal and civil law

Let’s take a look at the first hypothetical example. A man knows he’s infected with HIV and infects his partner on purpose. Since these are rare cases, it can only be said hypothetically that such a person is subjected to criminal law and prosecution by the state. The person can be charged with murder, which means 10 to 30 years in prison. If the public prosecutor’s office doesn’t succeed with the murder charge, the man can be charged with intent to cause serious physical injury. The sentence is up to 10 years in prison. There are several possible charges, but it’s very difficult to prove the intent in any of them. That makes such cases rare.

Here's a second example. A man is infected with AIDS and, without knowing that, also infects his partner. She decides to get him sued for what he had done to her unaware - to file a civil and damages claim. She wants her husband to realize that he could’ve suspected that he was infected, but he still decided to put her life at risk. This is also very difficult to prove, but still less difficult than in criminal law. It’s the significance of evidence that matters. Namely, it’s a great difference if the defendant contracted HIV infection during transfusion or unprotected sex with strangers. It’s important whether there was any chance that the partner might’ve been infected with HIV, and if other people, too, would normally think that they might contract HIV infection in such a situation.

Importance of our actions and decisions

If you infected your partner with a cold because of your behavior in sex life, you probably wouldn’t think of getting sued for infecting them. However, the nature of sexually transmitted diseases often causes very serious consequences. Apart from cheating, which is problematic in itself, you endanger other people’s lives, not to mention your own life. Therefore, it’s advisable that you always think before you have sex. When you have sexual intercourse with a stranger, always use protection. If you break this rule, you have to test yourself for the most common diseases before you have sex with your spouse! Not only that you can kill the person you love, but you’re also criminally liable. You can kill a person because of unprotected sex and thus spend a few years in prison. Put a condom on your penis. Be smart. Be safe.