What You Are Facing Right Now
If you are reading this, something already happened to you or someone you love at a Red Roof Inn. Maybe you were trafficked there — moved from room to room, watched over, used, sold, controlled. Maybe you found out a family member was. Maybe the worst part is not the thing that was done to you, but the question that follows: the hotel saw me. The hotel took money from him. Why didn’t they stop it?
That question is the whole case. Federal law lets you ask it in a courtroom. The statute is called the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and it does something most people never expect: it lets a survivor sue not just the trafficker, but the business that profited from the abuse. A hotel that rents rooms to a trafficker, watches the same man check in week after week, ignores the girls who never come to the front desk, and pockets the room money — that hotel is not a bystander. Under federal law, it can be a defendant.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Our managing partner, Ralph P. Manginello, has practiced personal-injury and commercial-vehicle trial law in Texas for more than 27 years. He has tried cases in state and federal court, and he built this firm on the principle that an insurance company should not be the one deciding what your case is worth. Our associate, Lupe Peña, spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before moving to our side — he has sat in the rooms where claims like yours are priced, where reserves are set, where the Colossus software and the IME doctors get chosen. He now uses that insider knowledge to fight the same machine he used to work for. Together, we handle commercial-vehicle, catastrophic-injury, and premises-liability cases in Texas and across the country. We work on contingency — 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win. We offer a free consultation, 24 hours a day. Our emergency line is 1-888-ATTY-911.
We have not yet worked on your specific case. We cannot tell you what happened to you or what your case is worth without hearing the facts. What we can do is tell you exactly what the law says, what the hotel knew, and what the proof looks like. That is what this page is for.
What the Federal Law Actually Says About Hotels and Trafficking
The civil hook for a case against a hotel for trafficking is 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a) — a section of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). It says:
“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.”
Translated into plain language: a trafficking survivor can sue the business that took money from the operation, if the business knew or should have known what was going on. The hotel does not have to be the trafficker. It only has to have benefited from the venture. That single phrase — “participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known” — is the doorway the case walks through.
The TVPRA also gives the survivor a clock most people never expect. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(c), a claim can be filed 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.”
That is a long window. A survivor who was trafficked at 15 has until her 28th birthday to file. A survivor trafficked as an adult has ten years from the act. The federal deadline is not the one most people fear — the one most people fear is the evidence clock, which is much shorter, and which we cover below.
A second federal statute matters. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), Pub. L. 115-164 (April 11, 2018), carved an exception into the Communications Decency Act for trafficking claims under 18 U.S.C. § 1595, so the website immunity that once shielded platforms from liability for what their users posted does not protect them from a sex-trafficking case. If your case involves online solicitation, online ads, or booking platforms that routed you to the property, that federal hook matters and may be an additional defendant.
The elements a survivor must prove, as courts now read them after the leading appellate case discussed below, are: (1) the defendant knowingly benefited, (2) from taking part in a common undertaking or enterprise involving risk and potential profit, (3) that violated the TVPRA as to the plaintiff, and (4) the defendant had constructive or actual knowledge the venture violated the TVPRA as to the plaintiff. That last element — should have known — is where almost every case turns.
The Red Roof Inn Cases — What Is Already on the Record
Red Roof Inn is one of the largest budget motel chains in the United States. It is operated by Red Roof Inns, Inc. (the franchisor), Red Roof Franchising, LLC, and RRI West Management, LLC (the entity that manages the company-operated properties). The ultimate ownership traces to Westmont Hospitality Group and joint-venture partners. The number of cases that have surfaced against Red Roof tells the story in two directions.
The defense win you should know about. In Doe #1 v. Red Roof Inns, Inc., 21 F.4th 714 (11th Cir. 2021), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of the § 1595 beneficiary claims against the franchisor — that is, against Red Roof Inns, Inc. as the corporate brand entity. The court’s reasoning was specific: a franchisor that licenses a name and collects royalties, without more, is not in participation in a venture with the trafficker. The opinion held that constructive knowledge of trafficking, standing alone, is not enough to drag the franchisor in. The court indicated that claims against the franchisee/operator at the property would be treated differently. This is a real decision. It is a defense win at the appellate level. We cite it here because ignoring it would be malpractice — and because it tells you exactly what the opposite case must look like to win.
The plaintiff’s win you should also know about. That same Eleventh Circuit later ruled the other way in the operator track. In A.G. v. Northbrook Industries, Inc. (11th Cir. 2026), consolidated with G.W. v. Northbrook Industries under docket No. 25-10816, the court vacated summary judgment for the hotel operator and remanded the case for trial. The court held that “ordinary hotel room rentals alone do not establish liability,” but that “participation in a venture” can be shown by conduct evidencing active support or facilitation — staff interactions with traffickers, allowing unverified room access, ignoring trafficking indicators. Knowledge of the specific victim is not required; constructive knowledge that the venture was trafficking is enough. That case dealt with a different defendant entity, but the operator-side framework applies to any Red Roof property where the same pattern of conduct existed.
The settlements that prove the cases settle. Reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, FOX 5 Atlanta, and WSB-TV confirms that Red Roof settled an Atlanta-area sex-trafficking case on the eve of trial in June 2024 — terms confidential, amount undisclosed. Other Red Roof matters have resolved confidentially before trial. Confidential settlements are real proof that the company pays to make these cases go away, but they are not citable dollar figures. They are also not admissions of liability. We name them because they answer the most common question survivors ask: does the hotel ever actually pay? The answer is yes, frequently, and before a jury.
The headline verdict in this space. A federal jury in the Northern District of Georgia, in J.G. v. Northbrook Industries, Inc. (Case No. 1:20-cv-05233, Judge Sarah E. Geraghty), returned a $40 million verdict on July 25, 2025 — $10 million compensatory and $30 million punitive — against the operator of a United Inn & Suites where a 16-year-old was trafficked over roughly forty days. This was reported as the first civil TVPRA case to reach a jury verdict in the United States. Finality, including any post-trial motions or appeal, has not been established at the time of writing — and we cite it as evidence that juries will punish trafficking in the hotel context, not as a final award. The point is the same one a $40M verdict and a confidential Red Roof settlement make together: when the facts are bad enough, the hotel pays, sometimes a great deal.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
The Hotel’s Structure — Why Naming the Right Entity Matters
A Red Roof case has layers, and the wrong layer loses.
The operator. The franchisee or local LLC that owns the building, hires the front-desk staff, and runs the property day to day is the primary defendant in almost every Red Roof trafficking case. That is the entity whose staff saw the cash payments, heard the requests for rooms near exits, watched the same man check in week after week, and decided to keep handing over keys. Under the A.G. v. Northbrook Industries framework, that operator can be pulled into the case on an active participation theory without needing to prove the corporate brand controlled anything.
The franchisor. Red Roof Inns, Inc. as the corporate brand is much harder to reach. After Doe #1 v. Red Roof Inns, a franchisor cannot be sued merely because its name was on the sign and it collected royalties. But the brand is not unreachable — it is reachable when the brand itself controlled the operation of a specific property: dictated staffing, dictated training, mandated the booking and property-management systems, and knew what was happening at the property. The franchisor’s own brand standards, training manuals, internal audits, mystery-shopper reports, and corporate communications are the documents that show whether the brand was a passive licensor or an operational hand on the property. Those documents live in the franchisor’s files. They are produced only in litigation.
The management company. When Red Roof manages a property through RRI West Management, LLC, that entity becomes a separate defendant with its own operational duties.
The brand-wide pattern. Red Roof operates as one of the largest budget motel chains in the country. The federal court system has consolidated Red Roof trafficking claims into multi-district litigation because the allegations share enough facts to warrant coordinated pretrial work. That kind of consolidation itself is a signal: when the same brand shows the same pattern across properties, courts treat it as one problem, not as dozens of unrelated stories.
The wrong defendant loses. The right defendant wins — or pays.
The Red Flags — What “Should Have Known” Actually Looks Like in Court
The TVPRA does not require the hotel to have known you by name. It requires that the hotel knew, or should have known, the venture was trafficking. Courts have spelled out what tips a hotel from bystander to participant, and the indicators are not subtle. They are exactly the things the industry itself trains staff to spot:
- Cash-only payment. Room paid in cash, especially for extended stays, with no credit card on file.
- Refusal of housekeeping. The guest insists the room not be cleaned, or the staff is told not to enter.
- Excessive foot traffic. A parade of men entering one room over short periods, with the same room occupant or no occupant ever visible at the desk.
- Different young companions. The same man checks in repeatedly, each time with a different young woman who never comes to the front desk.
- Requests for specific rooms. Ground-floor rooms near exits. Rooms away from cameras.
- Minimal luggage. Guests staying for days with no bags.
- Requests for excess towels, linens, or cleaning supplies beyond what a normal stay would require.
- Controlled-appearing guests. A companion who never speaks for herself, who looks frightened, who does not have ID, who is asked to leave the room whenever staff enter.
- Prior complaints ignored. Housekeeping or front-desk staff who flagged the activity internally and got no response.
- Police call history. Prior law-enforcement presence at the property for similar activity — pullable from the local agency’s CAD records.
- Visible physical evidence. Used condoms, lubricant packaging, drug paraphernalia, signs of violence, restraints.
Each of those is a building block of constructive knowledge. None of them is exotic. A reasonable hotel, with reasonable training, should see them. When a property sees them and still hands over the key, that is not innocent; that is a choice.
The Evidence That Disappears Fastest
The right to sue survives longer than the proof. That gap is the defense’s quiet friend.
There is no federal statute mandating how long a hotel keeps its surveillance video. Industry practice commonly overwrites on a rolling 30-day loop, and many systems overwrite far faster. There is no federal statute mandating how long a hotel keeps its key-card logs, its guest folios, its housekeeping records, or its internal incident reports. Those are governed by chain policy and state record-retention rules, not by federal mandate. What that means in practice is that the video that proves the front desk saw the trafficker walks past every Tuesday is often gone within a month unless someone tells the hotel to save it.
The preservation letter is the single most important early move. The day you call us, we send a written litigation-hold letter to the operator, the franchisor, the management company, and — where applicable — the third-party camera and property-management system vendor. The letter identifies the specific records to preserve: surveillance footage from the lobby, hallway, parking lot, and front desk; electronic key-card access logs; guest folios; housekeeping logs; internal incident reports; police call-for-service history; employee training records; employee personnel files for the staff on duty; and the operator’s communications with the franchisor about the property. It states the claim, identifies the parties, demands preservation, and warns of spoliation. Under federal civil procedure (Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e)), if a hotel destroys evidence after receiving a preservation demand, a court can impose the harshest sanctions — including an adverse-inference instruction that tells the jury to assume the missing video would have hurt the hotel. Many states have parallel spoliation doctrines. That is the leverage that converts a missing tape into a recoverable case.
If you are reading this and you have not yet called a lawyer, call before the month is up. Call before the property changes its cameras. Call before the front-desk staff rotates and the records follow them. The law gives you ten years to sue; it does not give you ten years to find the proof.
What Damages Look Like in These Cases
Cases against hotels for sex trafficking reach into the multi-million-dollar range for a single survivor, and the range we have seen in Red Roof-adjacent litigation runs from confidential settlements in the high six figures on the low end to jury verdicts in the tens of millions. The damages analysis in a TVPRA case has several layers:
Past and future medical care. Sex-trafficking survivors routinely carry complex PTSD, major depressive disorder, substance-use disorder, sexually transmitted infections, reproductive injuries, traumatic brain injury from repeated assault, malnutrition, and dental neglect. The medical record from the first emergency department, clinic, or counselor visit is the start. A life-care plan built by a qualified expert will quantify the lifetime stream of psychiatric care, primary-care visits, prescription medications, residential treatment episodes, and supportive services.
Past and future lost earnings. If the survivor was a student, a wage earner, or was prevented from building the career she would have built, that loss is provable. Forensic economists project lost earning capacity using federal labor-force data, applying the appropriate consumption-deduction in a death case (not applicable in a survived injury case), and reducing the future stream to present value at an appropriate discount rate.
Pain, suffering, and loss of dignity. Federal civil-rights law recognizes the value of life itself as a distinct recoverable head in some contexts; state law varies on whether loss of enjoyment of life can be separated from general pain-and-suffering damages. Juries in trafficking cases have shown they will return significant non-economic awards, and the $30 million punitive component of the Northbrook verdict illustrates that a jury will reach for the company’s money, not just the company’s pocket change.
Punitive damages. The TVPRA’s “knew or should have known” standard is built to support punitives. When a hotel has been warned — by staff complaints, by prior police calls, by its own internal audits — and still chose revenue over intervention, that conduct crosses the threshold for punitives in most states.
Attorney’s fees. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), a prevailing plaintiff may recover “reasonable attorneys fees.” That is a meaningful and intentional part of the statute’s design — it makes bringing the case possible even when the survivor has no money to fund it.
The honest range for a documented Red Roof trafficking case, depending on severity, duration, jurisdiction, and the strength of the proof, runs from low six figures (brief exploitation, strong settlement posture) to mid-eight figures (years of trafficking, devastating injury, willful corporate blindness, punitive exposure). Your case lives somewhere in that range — somewhere, not some number we can quote without hearing the facts — and our job is to put the proof behind the right number.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
The Statute of Limitations — Your Clock and the Wrong Clock
Federal: 10 years from the act, or 10 years from the survivor’s 18th birthday if she was a minor. That is the TVPRA, 18 U.S.C. § 1595(c).
State tort claims — negligent security, premises liability, negligence per se, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and state-law trafficking civil claims — run on state-specific clocks, and they can be much shorter. In Texas, for example, personal-injury and negligence claims generally run two years from the act under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Other states have shorter or longer periods. Some states have revived-window statutes for childhood sexual abuse that extend the deadline dramatically. Some states apply the discovery rule differently.
We will pull your state’s specific statute of limitations the day you call. The clock that matters most is the evidence clock, not the SOL — but if you are approaching any deadline, we want to know that before the deadline passes, not after.
How the Defense Will Try to Win — and How We Counter
We have spent years inside the rooms where the other side builds its cases. The defenses are predictable. Here is the playbook, and here is the counter.
Play 1: “We just rented a room.” The hotel argues that renting a room to a paying guest is an ordinary commercial transaction, not participation in a trafficking venture. Counter: the A.G. v. Northbrook decision makes clear that ordinary room rental alone is not enough — but staff interaction with traffickers, allowing unverified room access, ignoring red flags, and continuous patronage of a known trafficker are. We prove the venture, not just the room.
Play 2: “Our driver was an independent contractor.” In a franchisor case, Red Roof Inns, Inc. argues it does not control the property; the franchisee does. Counter: the corporate brand controls more than its franchise agreement claims. Brand standards, training mandates, reservation systems, property-management platforms, mystery-shopper audits, and corporate communications all show whether the franchisor actually ran the operation. The discovery target is the franchise agreement itself and the brand-standards manual.
Play 3: “We had no idea.” The hotel claims it did not know and had no reason to know trafficking was happening. Counter: constructive knowledge is enough. The red-flag pattern listed above, combined with prior staff complaints, prior police calls, and prior internal audits, establishes what a reasonable hotel should have known. We pull the prior CAD history from the local agency. We pull the operator’s internal incident logs. We depose the housekeeping staff, the front-desk manager, and the general manager.
Play 4: “We kicked him out when we found out.” The hotel claims it terminated the room or the relationship once it learned of the conduct. Counter: timing matters. We examine when the hotel says it found out, what it actually did in response, and whether the termination came after warnings that were ignored for months or years. A late termination does not erase early willful blindness.
Play 5: “You can’t prove damages.” The hotel argues the survivor cannot prove the extent of injury or the cause of damages. Counter: the medical record is built from the first emergency department or clinic visit forward. Treating clinicians, validated PTSD instruments (CAPS-5, PCL-5), forensic accountants, and life-care planners are the proof. The invisible injury is the injury — the medical literature confirms it, and we prove it the way medicine proves it.
Play 6: “Coverage bars the claim.” The hotel’s insurer argues an assault-and-battery exclusion, an exclusion for criminal acts, or an exclusion for sex trafficking. Counter: coverage litigation is its own fight, and it often turns on the specific policy language and the precise theory of liability against the hotel. We name the hotel, not just the trafficker, so the claim is for the hotel’s own negligence, not for the trafficker’s assault. We pursue the operator’s coverage tower, the franchisor’s separate tower, and the management company’s tower.
Play 7: “We’re the wrong defendant — sue the brand.” Or the reverse: the franchisee argues you should sue the franchisor, and the franchisor argues you should sue the franchisee. Counter: we name every layer — operator, franchisor, management company, broker — in the same case and let discovery sort out which layer is responsible for what. The defense cannot use the shell game to make the case disappear; that is the entire reason the law allows piercing the structure.
What Our Team Does on a Case Like This
The first day we work on a trafficking case, we do five things in parallel.
We send the preservation letters. We pull the local police CAD records for the address, going back as far as the agency keeps them. We pull the property’s registration with the state tourism or lodging authority and identify the operating entity. We pull the franchise-agreement parties of interest from the franchisor’s filings, and we cross-reference the property against the multi-district litigation dockets to see whether your case overlaps an existing consolidated proceeding. We begin the medical-records collection, starting with the first responder or first clinic visit.
We do not bill you for any of this work. Our fee is contingency — 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. If we do not win, you do not pay a fee. We also advance the case costs (filing fees, expert depositions, medical records, investigators) and recover those from any recovery at the end. Our free consultation is free, with no obligation, and the call is confidential.
You will work directly with Ralph and Lupe, not a call center. We speak English and Spanish. Hablamos Español.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the hotel even though I wasn’t the trafficker?
Yes. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), a survivor can sue anyone who knowingly benefited from the trafficking venture — including a hotel that took room money. You do not have to be the trafficker; you only have to be the victim of the venture.
Who exactly do I sue — Red Roof Inns, Inc., the local property, or both?
Both, in most cases. The operating LLC that runs the property is the primary defendant. The franchisor (Red Roof Inns, Inc.) is a separate defendant in some cases, depending on how much the brand actually controlled the property. The management company (often RRI West Management, LLC) is a third potential defendant. We name all of them in the case and let discovery sort out who is responsible for what.
How long do I have to file?
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(c), you have 10 years from the act, or 10 years from your 18th birthday if you were a minor when it happened. State tort claims run on shorter state clocks — sometimes as short as two years. The clock that matters most in practice is the evidence clock, not the SOL — see below.
Will the hotel’s insurance cover this?
Often, yes — but it depends on the policy language. Assault-and-battery exclusions are common, but those exclusions usually apply to claims against the assailant, not to claims against the hotel for the hotel’s own negligence. Coverage litigation is its own fight. We pursue every available tower — the operator’s primary, the franchisor’s excess, the management company’s coverage — and we sue the hotel entity itself for conduct that falls outside the assault-and-battery exclusion.
What if I don’t remember all the details?
You do not need a perfect memory. The case is built from documents — surveillance video, key-card logs, guest folios, housekeeping records, internal incident reports, prior CAD history, employee personnel files, and the franchisor’s internal communications. Your testimony anchors the case; the documents prove it. Many survivors’ memories recover in fragments over time as they get safe. We work at your pace.
What if the trafficker threatened me not to talk?
The TVPRA recognizes the barriers survivors face. Federal law treats threats and intimidation as additional crimes, and many states have witness-protection and trafficking-victim protections. If you are being threatened now, that itself is a crime, and we can connect you with law enforcement and victim-services resources. You do not have to choose between your safety and your case; we pursue both.
Will the hotel try to blame me?
Some will try. They will say you consented, or you were paid, or you did not resist. None of those arguments defeats a TVPRA case. Force, fraud, coercion, and the age of the victim are not elements a survivor has to disprove — those are elements the plaintiff has to prove about the trafficker. The hotel’s job is to protect guests from third-party criminal conduct, and the moment it profits from that conduct, its defenses collapse.
What about my privacy?
Confidentiality is non-negotiable. Your records are protected by HIPAA, by state privacy statutes, and by our firm’s own protocols. We do not file your case publicly with your name; we use initials (Doe, Roe) where the court allows, and we seek protective orders sealing sensitive materials. The settlement terms in most trafficking cases are confidential. Your story stays yours.
How much does it cost to hire you?
The free consultation costs nothing and obligates nothing. If we take the case, we work on contingency: 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. We advance costs. If we do not win, you pay no fee.
How long does a case like this take?
It depends on the proof and the defendant. A case that settles confidentially after the preservation letter and discovery can resolve in 6 to 18 months. A case that goes to trial typically runs 18 to 36 months from filing. We will give you a realistic timeline once we know the facts of your case.
What if I’m not in the United States?
We can still help. Trafficking survivors bring TVPRA claims as private civil actions in U.S. federal court. We work with counsel in other jurisdictions as needed.
What if the hotel has gone bankrupt?
Bankruptcy does not end the case against the hotel’s principals, against other non-bankrupt defendants in the same corporate structure, or against insurance carriers. We will analyze the corporate family and pursue every reachable target.
How Attorney911 Approaches This Case
We approach every trafficking case the same way we approach every case that has been buried under money and silence: by following the proof. We send the preservation letter before the evidence dies. We pull the CAD records before the agency cycles them. We depose the front-desk manager before the testimony gets rehearsed. We name every layer in the corporate structure so none of them can hide behind another. We work with treating clinicians, forensic accountants, life-care planners, and human-trafficking experts to build the case from the ground up, not the top down.
Ralph Manginello has spent 27 years in courtrooms, including federal court. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the Houston Bar Association, and the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. He built this firm to take on exactly the fights where the other side has more money, more lawyers, and more time — and to win anyway.
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before moving to our side. He knows Colossus, reserve-setting, IME-doctor selection, surveillance, and the delay tactics used to pressure survivors into low settlements. He uses that knowledge now to dismantle the same machine he used to work for. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish — no interpreter, no barrier.
Our practice areas include the work this case requires — premises liability, negligent security, and catastrophic injury. We handle wrongful death cases when trafficking ends in death. We handle brain injuries when trafficking produces traumatic brain injury from repeated assault. We are not the right firm for a routine fender-bender, but we are the right firm for a case where the other side has more resources, more lawyers, and more delay tactics than you do.
Our YouTube library includes guidance for parents of injured children — including the kinds of choices you face when a child has been trafficked through a commercial property. We do not replace legal advice; we supplement it.
The Next Step
If you or someone you love was trafficked at a Red Roof Inn — or at any hotel — call us. The call is free. The call is confidential. The call does not obligate you to anything.
1-888-ATTY-911
We will pull your state’s statute of limitations the day you call. We will pull the CAD records on the property. We will send the preservation letter. We will identify the right defendants in the right court. We will work on contingency — 33.33% before trial, 40% if it goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you would rather reach us online, contact us through our website. Hablamos Español. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
You survived what was done to you. The law gives you a way to make the people who profited from it answer for it. We will help you use it.