Can you sue for STDs @ the club?

The only thing I remember from my BLaw class is that anybody can sue anyone over anything.

I'm not a legal expert but I doubt it, it's not as if the clubs are required by law to test dancers.

But, people due often win law suits for w/e reason, but I would doubt a jury would side with a cheating husband, besides knowing that messing with sex workers has that as one of the known dangers

@mark94 is on the right track, you sue but you won't win. Even if someone has sex with you, knows they have HIV but doesn't disclose it to you, you will not win.

You can definitely sue for STD’s if you can prove the dancer knowingly (without telling you) gave you a STD.

Hire JS69 as your attorney. He will win your case.

Also, no one is saying what the STD is. People probably assume herpes (as that is the most contagious outside of maybe HPV), but the vast majority of people have herpes and the vast majority of those don't even know it but are still technically contagious due to continuous viral shedding from the skin even without visible outbreaks. Any dancer with a halfway decent lawyer with a scientific expert will be able to convince a jury that there is no clear way you can prove that the herpes came from that particular dancer.

The club has the deep pockets. They are the primary target of the suit. The argument is they established a work environment that allowed this kind of behavior. The dancer is more witness than target.

If the club's owners have a proper liability shield in place, like any kind of risky business should, there won't be anything for anyone to get.

I should probably stick to goofy but brilliant answers that make me laugh, but I'll be serious for a moment.

I suspect Dougster is closer to right. The dancers are independent contractors and I'm sure the club will claim there is a general expectation that the girls will not have sex due to laws against prostitution.

Without knowing the details of the relevant law I suppose one could win a claim similar to the woman who burned herself with hot coffee. I have seen signs in at least one place (can't remember where) saying not to ask the girls for sex. I suspect the signs were to comply with a local anti-prostitution ordinance but I also suspect they might make it even harder to sue.

But overall, I'd be shocked if a person won a case against the club because the dancer, an independent contractor, violated stated club policy and that led to you getting an STD. Add to that the difficulty of proving you contracted the STD from the girl (some infections like HIV are easy to trace but not all infections are) and I doubt you'd meet the burden of proof even for a civil case.

Also, the vast majority of people are infected with either HSV-1 or HSV-2. The HSV-2 infection rate is much lower. I think it is only about 1 in 5 for white women, Though strippers are probably higher, and Papi_Chulo better watch out because the rate is more than 50% for non-Hispanic black women :(

^ the rate is closer to 1 in 4 for white women in general and 1 in 2 for single white women by the time they're 50 for you MILF and cougar lovers. And yes it is more than 60% of all black women and more than 90% by the time they reach 50 regardless of marital status. So not to be racially profiling, but just assume that all older black women have genital herpes and that they almost all certainly have one of either type.

vox.com

^ here's the methodology used for the article linked above for you nerds that can understand it. Those numbers seem so high, so i don't know how sound and accurate or truly representative or reflective of the real world those methods were.

bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com

@mark94 I don't think the clubs can be held responsible for the spread of STDs as they do not and are not required to screen/test workers. Seriously what could they have realistically done to stop it? Heck, they aren't liable for drug dependency or drug related issues either which IMO is a much bigger problem or fish to fry, although i think they probably should randomly drug test dancers (not for weed though) for the improved health of the dancers and a possible deterrence of the drug culture in clubs. I don't know what they should do if so many of the dancers fail though. But that is another topic.

For what it's worth the CDC doesn't even recommend testing for herpes. You just take this risk the more you play around.

cdc.gov

The thought from a legal point of view is that you don't want to allow people to sue each other for knowingly passing STDs since it would discourage people from getting tested and knowing. Sounds a little paradoxical, but that is basically public health policy.

Also it comes done to responsibility on the customers part: Did you use a condom? If not you made the decision to take the risks. Used one and got an STD anyway? Again, you should know that they don't work 100%.

A lawsuit would go nowhere fast.

^ In the case of condoms, they provide more protection for men than women in the case of herpes as the mucous membranes are covered, which is the primary, but not only source of infection. So all you BBBJ lovers that don't already have type 1 herpes are putting yourself at risk of getting it on your junk. There is no barrier that covers all of a woman's mucous membranes during sex outside of maybe dental dams for cunnilingus. I wonder how many women have ever used one of those? If they have, they might understand why men hate condoms. But people love unprotected sex too much to stop having it.

"For what it's worth the CDC doesn't even recommend testing for herpes. You just take this risk the more you play around."

+1

For those of you who fuck a different stripper every week and wear a condom -- good luck. Condoms are only 30% to 50% effective at preventing HSV-2.

If someone wins an STD lawsuit with a club, get ready for Saran Wrap lap dances. (SMH)

^ Brilliant point SirLapdancealot!

theDirkDiggler, ace research.

I didn't look the value up and just went on memory of news articles I've read. But 20% vs 25% isn't hugely different. I looked up the journal you cited (BMC Infectious Diseases) and it looks peer reviewed. The even post the reviews. I didn't read them because I don't really want to spend time figuring out details about the paper or the reviews (not like I'm an epidemiologist!).

Regardless, I was just commenting on the vast majority issue. You're certainly right about HSV-1 though I'm not too worried about HSV-1 and that's the one basically everybody has.

I don't think it is racist or racial profiling to say different demographic groups have different rates of infectious disease exposure (or other health issues). I suspect that HSV-2 infections rate also correlate with income level. It would be interesting to know how many strippers have HSV-2. Perhaps that is getting into the >50% zone even for the white strippers.

If only I knew the infection rate of 19-year old Ukrainian girls and the oral to anal transmission rate.

Because rimjobs from sexy 19-year old Ukrainian girls = brilliant!

@4got2wipe Or LOL before any dances we will have to sign a waiver that we are knowingly risking the chance of getting an STD by getting dances with high risk strippers.

In Arizona, we have those big trucks hauling landscaping rocks. Some of them drop rocks as they barrel down the highway. They all have signs that say “ Not liable for broken windshields”. So, a club builds private VIP booths, takes a cut of each dance, doesn’t monitor what goes on in the booth, and has high tip out fees.They post a small sign somewhere that says “ No sex in the champagne room”. Or, as Sergeant Schultz said, “ I see nothing !”.

Hmmm...not a lawyer but it would seem no different than if you caught an STD from a civilian. In fact multiple illegal acts would be occuring in the club that you would be a willing acomplice in through contracting said STD. Not only would you be admitting to the illegal act and be subject to prosecution you would be announcing to the world you are an official PL. In addition how do you prove it is her. Lets say you went through this gauntlet of pain and by some miracle won the civil case I doubt there would be much of an award out of this to offset everything else.

Pointless exercise in my opinion...

It sure would be ironic if once all the lawyers got involved, the STD were traced back to the PL's wife's Xbox-playing weed-smoking boyfriend and the PL and his wife had to cover all of her lost income from the dancer not being able to offer certain services at the club anymore.

Bonus points if his wife's boyfriend turns out to be the same as the stripper's boyfriend.

This would make a good law school or bar exam question. The answer depends somewhat upon the law of the particular state. But you could probably sue a dancer who knowingly gave you an std. However, the fact that it was transmitted via an act of prostitution is a complicating factor. Suing the club would be much more difficult. No doubt there is some lawyer out there desperate enough to try it, but I doubt if such a claim could survive long.

JS69,

Mark said what I've pretty much always thought. And that is you can sue anybody for anything. If so, then finding an attorney to take some really stupid ass suit might be a limiting factor. On second thought, maybe not. :)

I doubt even Saul Goodman would take this one...

Saul would laugh in the PL's face.

Don't fuck whores if you don't want STDs. Does anyone really think a ho trying to catch a trick is going to be honest about much? Yes, sue a ho for giving you an STD and then you'll have to plead the fifth as to how you contracted it, or end up with a criminal case against you. Ha.

I recall about 15 years ago hearing a case in the news where some early-20s bartender chick in a Portland bar (not a strip-club) went home w/ a guy/customer she found attractive - turned-out the guy was HIV-positive (and knew-it) and supposedly gave it to her - she notified the authorities and the guy was in jail awaiting trial - not sure what happened in the end.