18 U.S.C. § 1595
Section 1595 · Civil remedy
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 91 court decisions — leading case Velez v. Sanchez (2012)
Most recently applied in Doe v. Grindr Inc. (February 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) An individual who is a victim of a violation of this chapter may bring a civil action against the perpetrator (or whoever knowingly benefits, or attempts or conspires to benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter) in an appropriate district court of the United States and may recover damages and reasonable attorneys fees.
(b)(1) Any civil action filed under subsection (a) shall be stayed during the pendency of any criminal action arising out of the same occurrence in which the claimant is the victim.
(2) In this subsection, a "criminal action" includes investigation and prosecution and is pending until final adjudication in the trial court.
(c) No action may be maintained under subsection (a) unless it is commenced not later than the later of—
(1) 10 years after the cause of action arose; or
(2) 10 years after the victim reaches 18 years of age, if the victim was a minor at the time of the alleged offense.
(d) In any case in which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the residents of that State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by any person who violates section 1591, the attorney general of the State, as parens patriae, may bring a civil action against such person on behalf of the residents of the State in an appropriate district court of the United States to obtain appropriate relief.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Editorial Notes
Amendments
2023—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 117–347 inserted "or attempts or conspires to benefit," after "whoever knowingly benefits,".
2018—Subsecs. (b)(1), (c). Pub. L. 115–164, §6(b), substituted "subsection (a)" for "this section".
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 115–164, §6(a), added subsec. (d).
2015—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 114–22 substituted "not later than the later of—" for "not later than 10 years after the cause of action arose." and added pars. (1) and (2).
2008—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 110–457, §221(2)(A), struck out "of section 1589, 1590, or 1591" after "victim of a violation" and inserted "(or whoever knowingly benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter)" after "perpetrator".
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 110–457, §221(2)(B), added subsec. (c).