Original explainer
A duty to defend is not a promise to pay the judgment
Insurance disputes contain several different decisions. Understanding which one a court made changes the meaning of the news.
Browse the Review
Explainers
Begin with the framework, then use the statute guides and related decisions to go deeper.
11 resources
Original explainer
Forced labor does not require a locked door
The law asks how work was compelled, including threats aimed at a person’s finances, family, reputation or immigration vulnerability.
Original explainer
Trafficking has an economy. Its statistics do not all measure the same thing.
Profit estimates, detected victims and suspicious transactions answer different questions. Keeping the units straight makes the business model clearer.
History
How survivors gained a federal civil remedy
The law’s development is a sequence of choices about who can sue, whom they can sue and what conduct counts.
Original explainer
Start here: how trafficking law fits together
A guide to criminal offenses, civil lawsuits, insurance and the history connecting them.
Statute guide
18 U.S.C. § 1589: Forced labor
Section 1589 prohibits knowingly obtaining or providing labor or services through specified coercive means and imposes liability on certain knowing or recklessly indifferent beneficiaries of a venture. It defines serious harm and abuse of law or legal process and sets penalties, but does not address sex trafficking’s elements or its overlap with forced labor.
Statute guide
18 U.S.C. § 1591: Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion
Section 1591 establishes criminal liability for specified conduct involving a person, or knowing benefits from a venture engaging in such conduct, when the statutory force/fraud/coercion or under-18 commercial-sex-act conditions are met. It also sets criminal penalties and defines commercial sex act, coercion, serious harm, and participation in a venture.
Statute guide
18 U.S.C. § 1595: Civil remedy
Section 1595 authorizes victim civil actions against perpetrators and certain knowing or constructive-knowledge beneficiaries, provides damages and reasonable attorneys fees, and establishes a stay and limitations period. It also authorizes specified state-attorney-general parens patriae actions and includes notes identifying several amendments.
Original explainer
Civil trafficking claims under 18 U.S.C. §1595
An introductory guide to civil trafficking accountability under 18 U.S.C. §1595: elements, evidence, litigation limits, and careful source reading.
Original explainer
Participation is not a business label.
Compare participation-in-a-venture questions across six civil trafficking case studies without treating different courts and postures as interchangeable.
Original explainer
What did the court actually decide?
Read civil trafficking decisions by procedural stage: dismissal, summary judgment, stays, remand, and the limits of what each result establishes.