We can be sued. As clients, we can be sued for one reason or another take your fucking pick but it is very possible for this to happen. I've always known this is a thing and it could literally happen to any one of us at any given time, but I really didn't know the extent of what it could be for until I found this post on X. Seems a little scary if you ask me, as the unpredictability of some providers could spell disaster for clients. Still, I see this as no different from civilian life when someone is taking legal action against another.
The post above is what I'm talking about in particular. A provider sued a client for emotional distress. Not going too much into what happened, because I have no idea and therefore have no reason to speak on it. Someone suing anyone for any kind of emotional distress doesn't make sense to me, as this is a broad term and without anyone knowing what happened between this provider and client other than them. However, what I can say is for a provider to go the legal route knowing her profession is looked at in society as taboo, something bad must have really happened. The fact that it did happen speaks volumes on how the legal system works as well as how wrong a lot of us see it.
All of this happened in the States. At first I thought it was somewhere in Australia or the Netherlands where providing is legal and tolerated, but it actually happened here. It's pretty all over the place, but from what I've learned about taking legal action in our situations, a provider can do so for just about anything with the exception of being led on and the murky field that is money being exchanged. Which means anything from a fake review to money being exchanged outside of a session is up for legal action. Pretty much fucking everything, as long as there is evidence to back it up.
Now, I don't think the provider above only sued the client for money. There are other components attached to doing this, with the main one being the impact of what could happen if clients aren't being respectable human beings in the middle of a session. If it's worth six months of a provider's time and winning a few thousand dollars to know that no one is untouchable in sessions, that actions do have consequences.
Of course, this also works vice versa. As clients, we can do the same thing if need be, and I've heard of maybe two doing this since I started the hobby. Usually neither side goes through with it since either we don't know we can or, more likely, it's legal action being brought during an illegal situation. No one really wants to be a part of all that mess. Though this goes to show some are just different.
The idea that a provider can sue a client feels shocking only because many of us operate under the illusion that this world exists outside of normal consequences. It doesn’t. Once you strip away the stigma and the secrecy, we’re still talking about two adults interacting, and if something crosses a legal line, the courts don’t magically stop working just because money changed hands. That cuts both ways. Most situations will never escalate that far, but this is a reminder that being respectful, documenting communication, and moving with common sense isn’t paranoia it’s protection. Again, this works both fucking ways. That's important.
