Revenge Porn Lawsuit New York: Suing the Person Who Shared Your Images

Someone you trusted shared a private image. Today it sits on a website you cannot control, and the police may have said they cannot help. Still, New York gives you a remedy of your own. A revenge porn lawsuit New York permits under Civil Rights Law section 52-b lets you sue the person who spread the image. Because the statute is civil, you do not need a criminal case first. Money damages and a court-ordered takedown are both on the table.

What Civil Rights Law Section 52-b Actually Requires

The statute creates a private right of action for unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image. Three elements matter. First, you took or allowed the image when you reasonably expected it would stay private. Second, the image shows an unclothed or exposed intimate part, or you engaging in sexual conduct as the Penal Law defines that term. Third, the person shared it without your consent.

Threats fall within the statute too. Someone who threatens to publish an intimate image faces the same liability as someone who publishes it. In fact, most survivors call a lawyer while the threat is still only a threat. Fortunately, New York does not make you wait for the worst to happen.

One element trips people up. Because the sender must act for the purpose of harassing you, annoying you or alarming you, motive matters. Proof rarely requires a confession. Angry messages, a recent breakup or a pattern of unwanted contact usually supply it. Any New York sexual abuse lawyer will tell you the same thing. Often the sender’s own texts prove motive better than anything else.

Many survivors assume they forfeited their rights by creating the image or sending it willingly. Instead, the statute says the opposite, and it says so in its first sentence. Under section 52-b, the cause of action applies whether or not the original image was consensually obtained.

Consent to take an image is not consent to publish it. Sending a photo to one person is not consent to send it to the internet. Since the old law left survivors with nothing whenever they had helped create the picture, New York drew that line deliberately.

What a Revenge Porn Lawsuit New York Courts Allow Can Recover

Remedies under section 52-b are unusually broad. A court may award compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief and reasonable court costs and attorneys’ fees. Fee shifting matters enormously here. That means a survivor with no money can bring a case that a lawyer can afford to take.

Compensatory damages cover the harm you actually carry. Therapy, psychiatric care, lost income and lost job opportunities all qualify. Beyond that, the psychological injury itself qualifies, and in these cases it is often severe and lasting. Our discussion of emotional distress damages in sexual abuse cases explains how New York juries value that harm. Similarly, our overview of trauma and delayed disclosure addresses why survivors often wait before coming forward.

Forcing a Website to Remove the Image and Unmasking a John Doe

Section 52-b does something most privacy statutes do not. Subdivision four lets you seek a court order requiring a website to remove the image permanently. Removal must be reasonably within that site’s control. Meanwhile, subdivision five subjects any website hosting the image in New York to personal jurisdiction here. Here the reach runs to the fullest extent the Constitution permits.

Those two provisions work together. As a result, an offshore site that would otherwise ignore a New York survivor can be pulled into a New York courtroom. Even so, the statute is careful. It neither expands nor limits the protections that section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives interactive computer services. Realistically, the target remains the person who posted the image.

Anonymous accounts post most of these images. Still, that fact does not end the lawsuit. New York permits a lawsuit against a John Doe defendant. Subpoenas to the platform and to the internet service provider can then reveal who was behind the account. Our guide to suing an anonymous John Doe in New York walks through that process step by step.

The Deadline Is Longer Than You Think

Section 52-b sets a two part limitations period, and you get whichever is later. First comes the three year branch, which runs from the dissemination or publication. Next comes a one year branch, running from the date you discover, or reasonably should have discovered, that the image was published.

That second branch protects survivors in the common situation. Images surface years later, often on a site the survivor never knew existed. Therefore an old image does not automatically mean an expired case. Talk to a lawyer before assuming the deadline has run.

No Criminal Case Required

Subdivision seven is explicit. Nothing requires a prior criminal complaint, a prosecution or a conviction to establish the elements of this cause of action. Many survivors across New York hear from police that the matter is hard to charge. Of course, the sender may also live out of state. In contrast, a revenge porn lawsuit New York law provides does not depend on a prosecutor’s decision. You control the case, and the burden of proof is lower than the criminal standard.

Talk With The Law Firm of Andrew M. Stengel, P.C. About Your Options

Image-based sexual abuse leaves survivors feeling that the harm is permanent and public. It is neither. New York gives you a statute with real teeth, a takedown mechanism and a fee-shifting provision. The Law Firm of Andrew M. Stengel, P.C. represents survivors throughout New York, from New York City to Westchester, Nassau County and upstate. We handle revenge porn lawsuits along with our other civil practice areas.  Contact us to discuss your case. Email info@stengellaw.com or schedule at https://calendly.com/stengellaw.