§ 25-21,299.Civil action authorized; recovery; attorney's fees and costs; order of attachment.

Section 25-21,299 sets out the cause of action at the center of the Human Trafficking Victims Civil Remedy Act. A trafficking victim, that victim’s parent or legal guardian, or a personal representative if the victim has died, who suffered or continues to suffer personal or mental injury, death, or other damages proximately caused by human trafficking may sue any person who knowingly engaged in human trafficking of the victim within Nebraska, or who knowingly aided or assisted in that trafficking within Nebraska.

A prevailing plaintiff recovers damages proximately caused by the defendant’s conduct, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The statute lists categories of recoverable damages without limiting the plaintiff to just those categories: physical pain and mental suffering, past and future; the reasonable value of medical, hospital, and nursing care needed and provided, and reasonably certain to be needed in the future; transportation, housing, and child care costs the plaintiff incurred; the value of labor and services the plaintiff lost as a trafficking victim; the harm caused by documentation and circulation of the trafficking; the cost of relocating away from the defendant or the defendant’s associates; wrongful-death damages where the victim died; and the cost of participating in a related criminal investigation, prosecution, or proceeding.

Beyond damages, the court may enter an order of attachment under sections 25-1001 to 25-1010, giving a plaintiff an added tool to secure the defendant’s assets while the case proceeds.