If you were forced, tricked, or threatened into labor exploitation or into commercial sex, the law gives you more than a chance to see your trafficker prosecuted. You can also sue. Federal and Michigan law let survivors bring civil claims for money damages against the people who trafficked them and, in many cases, against the businesses that profited.

You don’t need to have reported anything to the police, and you don’t need a criminal conviction to bring a civil case. If you think this may describe you, or someone you care about, talking to a lawyer is a confidential first step, without committing to anything more than the consultation.

What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking means using force, fraud, or coercion to make someone work or perform commercial sex. Federal law recognizes two main forms:

• Sex trafficking. Causing someone to engage in a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion. When the person is under 18, no force, fraud, or coercion has to be shown at all.
• Labor trafficking (forced labor). Getting someone’s work by force or physical restraint, by serious harm or threats of serious harm, by abusing or threatening to abuse the legal process, or by a scheme meant to make the person believe they or someone else will be seriously harmed if they stop working.

Many survivors were recruited by someone they knew. Illegal trafficking doesn’t require chains, a locked room, or crossing a border. Many were free to walk down the street but felt they couldn’t leave. Federal law defines “serious harm” to include psychological, financial, and reputation harm, judged by what would compel a reasonable person in the survivor’s own circumstances to keep working. (18 U.S.C. § 1589)

Labor trafficking can look like a bad job

Labor trafficking often hides inside ordinary industries: farms, restaurants, hotels, construction, cleaning services, nail salons, factories, and private homes. From the outside it can look like an underpaid job. The difference is that the worker isn’t free to quit. Warning signs include:

• The employer or recruiter holds your passport, visa, or ID.
• You owe a recruitment, travel, or housing “debt” that keeps growing no matter how much you work.
• You’re paid far less than promised, or nothing at all, and told you’ll be paid “later.”
• Someone threatens to call immigration, the police, or your family if you complain or leave.
• You live where you work, and the employer controls your housing, transportation, phone, or money.
• You’ve been threatened, hurt, or told that someone you love will be hurt.

Threatening to report a worker to immigration authorities so they keep working can itself be forced labor. Federal law covers the use or threatened use of any legal process, including administrative processes, for a purpose it wasn’t designed for, to pressure someone into working. (18 U.S.C. § 1589(c)(1))

These situations often involve wage theft as well. A worker who was trafficked may also have claims for unpaid minimum wage and overtime, and those claims can be brought alongside a trafficking case.

Who can be held responsible?

Under the federal civil remedy in the Trafficking Victims Protection Re authorization Act (TVPRA), a survivor can sue the trafficker. The survivor can also sue anyone who knowingly benefited, financially or otherwise, from taking part in a venture they knew or should have known was engaged in trafficking. (18 U.S.C. § 1595(a))

That “should have known” standard matters. It means a business that profits from trafficking can’t always escape responsibility by looking the other way. Depending on the facts, responsible parties can include:

• The individual traffickers, recruiters, and anyone who worked with them.
• Employers, labor contractors, and staffing agencies that profited from forced labor.
• Hotels, motels, and property owners whose locations were used for trafficking.
• Other businesses that earned money from the trafficking and ignored the signs.

Whether a particular business can be held liable depends on what it knew, what it should have known, and how it benefited. Those are fact questions a lawyer can help you evaluate.

What Michigan law adds

Michigan gives survivors a separate claim under its own statute. Under the Human Trafficking Victims Compensation Act, anyone who commits a human-trafficking offense under Michigan’s penal code is liable to the victim for the economic and non economic damages it caused. (MCL 752.983(1))

A few features of the Michigan law are worth knowing:

• You can recover damages even if you weren’t physically injured. (MCL 752.983(2))
• The Michigan claim doesn’t replace other remedies. A survivor can pursue it alongside federal claims and any other claims available under the law. (MCL 752.985)
• The deadline is much shorter than under federal law. We explain it below.

Michigan also lets survivors ask a court to set aside certain prostitution-related convictions when the offense was a direct result of being trafficked. (MCL 780.621(3)) A record created by your trafficker shouldn’t follow you for the rest of your life.

What compensation can survivors seek?

No lawsuit can provide a full remedy for what happened. A civil case can pay for what comes next and hold the people responsible accountable. Federal law lets survivors recover damages and reasonable attorney’s fees. (18 U.S.C. § 1595(a)) Michigan’s statute lists damages that include:

• Medical and psychological care, treatment, and services.
• Lost earnings and lost earning capacity.
• Physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, and fright and shock.
• Embarrassment, humiliation, and loss of life’s enjoyments.
• Disability, disfigurement, and worsening of an existing condition.
• Property damage and other reasonable expenses caused by the trafficking.

(MCL 752.983(1))

For survivors of labor trafficking, the wages you were never paid are part of the picture too. A civil case is separate from any restitution a criminal court may order, and you can pursue both.

How long do I have to file?

The federal deadline is generous. The Michigan deadline is not. Waiting can mean losing the Michigan claim even while a federal claim is still open.

Claim	Deadline to file
Federal (TVPRA, 18 U.S.C. § 1595(c))	The later of 10 years after the claim arose, or 10 years after the survivor turns 18 if they were a minor at the time
Michigan (MCL 752.984)	3 years after the last violation

If there’s a criminal investigation or prosecution arising from the same events, a federal civil case is paused until the criminal case is resolved in the trial court. (18 U.S.C. § 1595(b)) Other claims, such as unpaid wages, carry their own deadlines. Because these rules interact, it’s worth talking to a lawyer early, even if you aren’t ready to file.

What if it’s someone you know?

If you think a friend, relative, or coworker is being trafficked, your instinct may be to confront the situation head-on. Be careful. Traffickers often watch phones and punish people who try to leave. A few ways to help without raising the risk:

• Listen without judgment. Many survivors don’t call what happened to them trafficking, and some still feel loyal to the person exploiting them. Let them tell you in their own words.
• Don’t confront the trafficker. That can put the survivor in more danger.
• Let them decide. Offer information and options, then respect their choices about whether and when to act.
• Share a resource quietly. The National Human Trafficking Hotline can help with safety planning, for survivors and for the people helping them.
• Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger.

A survivor can talk with a lawyer before deciding anything about police, a lawsuit, or anything else. That conversation is about options, not commitments.

How Blanchard & Walker can help

Blanchard & Walker is an Ann Arbor law firm focused on employment rights enforcement. Labor trafficking is the most extreme form of workplace exploitation, and it often comes with the wage theft and employer control we deal with every day. When you contact us, we will:

1. Listen first. Tell us as much or as little as you’re comfortable sharing.
2. Explain your options. That includes federal and Michigan trafficking claims, wage claims, and which deadlines apply to you.
3. Work around your safety and your timeline. You decide whether to move forward, and when.
4. Investigate and build the case. Pay records, housing arrangements, recruitment contracts, and communications can all show who knew what and who profited.

Help is available now

• National Human Trafficking Hotline: call 1-888-373-7888, text 233733, or chat online through humantraffickinghotline.org. It’s available around the clock in more than 200 languages, and it isn’t a government, law enforcement, or immigration agency.
• In immediate danger: call 911.

This post is general information, not legal advice, and reading it doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship. Every situation is different. Deadlines and rules can change, so talk with a lawyer about your specific circumstances.

Sources

• 18 U.S.C. § 1595 (Cornell LII)
• 18 U.S.C. § 1589 (GovInfo)
• Michigan Human Trafficking Victims Compensation Act, MCL 752.981 et seq.
• MCL 752.983 and MCL 752.984
• MCL 780.621