We Represent Survivors Trafficked at Motel 6, Studio 6, and Other SeaTac / King County Hotels — Quietly, and From Inside the Federal System That Was Built to Hold These Companies Accountable
If you are reading this, something has already happened to you. The rest of this page is about what we can do about it — on a clock that may be shorter than you think, and against a company whose entire business model in this corridor was built to keep the cameras rolling and the cash register open while predators worked their rooms.
In April 2024, a federal civil lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma against G6 Hospitality LLC (the corporate parent of Motel 6 and Studio 6), its parent, and third-party technology vendors. The complaint alleges that between 2015 and 2023, survivors — identified in the federal filing as “M.K.” and others — were trafficked repeatedly at three specific Motel 6 properties in SeaTac, Washington. The federal filing describes what we have seen in trafficking cases across the country: rooms rented on a recurring basis by the same trafficker, cash payments, housekeeping waved off for days at a time, a stream of different men through one room, staff who knew the trafficker by name — and a property that kept handing over keys.
We bring this case against G6 Hospitality and the companies behind it because the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), says we can. It is the only federal statute that lets a survivor sue not just the trafficker but anyone who knowingly benefited from a venture that trafficked her. We have read the statute. We know the four elements. We have spent decades working inside Washington personal-injury law, and we know the Washington courts’ approach to negligent security, premises liability, and damages. We know what evidence exists in a motel case, where it lives, and how fast it can be destroyed. We also know that proving what happened is the single most time-sensitive fight in the case — and that the company you are about to sue has a head start on that fight.
This page is the legal road map for a survivor, or a family member of a survivor, who was trafficked at one of these SeaTac Motel 6 properties — or at any comparable King County budget/long-stay motel that should have known and did nothing. It is written for you, not for a lawyer in another state.
The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), creates a federal civil remedy against anyone who “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.” A survivor may recover damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
The Federal Law That Protects You: 18 U.S.C. § 1595
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act is the federal statute Congress wrote to give trafficking survivors a civil weapon against any business that profited from their abuse. It does not require you to prove the hotel company “did” the trafficking. It requires you to prove four things, working together:
- Knowingly benefited. The hotel (or its parent, or its franchisor, or its on-site management company) took the room money — or the royalty off the top of the room money — from the situation.
- From participation in a venture. Courts have narrowed this element, especially against remote franchisors, but at the operator and management-company level the case is straightforward: the property received the trafficker, renewed his rooms, accepted his cash, looked the other way when staff flagged behavior, and kept the cash drawer open.
- That the venture violated the TVPRA as to you. This is the trafficking element — sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion, or sex trafficking of a minor regardless of force.
- Knew, or should have known. Federal law uses the “should have known” standard, not the stricter “actually knew” standard. Constructive knowledge is enough. The combination of recurring cash rentals, refusals of housekeeping, foot traffic, and a known minor in the room is the textbook red-flag pattern the industry itself trains staff to recognize.
We have spent more than two decades inside Washington personal-injury law. We know the elements. We know the defenses. We know what Washington juries and federal juries in the Western District of Washington do with the proof.
The 10-Year Federal Clock: § 1595(c)
18 U.S.C. § 1595(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.”
This is a generous federal clock. If you were trafficked as a child, the ten-year period does not start running until you turn 18. But the federal right to sue is not the same as having the proof to sue. The proof has its own, much shorter, deadlines — and we get to those below.
FOSTA and Section 230: What the Hotel Cannot Hide Behind
For decades, online platforms argued they could not be sued for what users posted. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA), signed into law April 11, 2018, stripped that immunity for trafficking claims. Under 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(5), civil claims brought under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 are expressly carved out of Section 230 immunity where the underlying conduct is a § 1591 sex-trafficking violation. Federal law now treats the platform that knowingly facilitated the venture as exposed — and the case against the platform’s role in trafficking-related marketing, booking, and data flow can move forward.
We know the technology layer matters. The same federal complaint in Tacoma names third-party software and platform defendants alongside G6 Hospitality. We pursue every entity in the chain that benefited from the venture.
The Defendant: G6 Hospitality, the Motel 6 / Studio 6 Family, and the Shell Game
Understanding who we are suing matters more than understanding the statute. Motel 6 and Studio 6 are flags. Behind each flag is a layered corporate structure designed to push the liability to the thinnest entity in the chain. We refuse to play into that design.
The Family of Entities You Will Encounter
- G6 Hospitality LLC — the operating parent that owns the Motel 6 and Studio 6 brands. G6 is the named defendant in the federal complaint filed in Tacoma.
- OYO / Oravel Stays — the parent of G6 Hospitality since December 17, 2024, when the Blackstone-controlled G6 was sold to Oravel Stays (the parent of Indian hospitality company OYO) for $525 million. This is a fresh ownership change. We work the post-change structure for the deep pocket and the pre-change structure for the documents and the historical knowledge.
- Studio 6 Extended Stay / Motel 6 Operating Subsidiaries — at the SeaTac, Military Road, Pacific Highway South, and 47th Avenue South properties specifically, the property-level operating entity may be a separate LLC that holds the franchise/license. We pull the specific SeaTac property records, not the brand-level glossy.
The Property-Level Reality in SeaTac
The federal complaint identifies three specific properties in the SeaTac / King County corridor — on Military Road South, Pacific Highway South, and 47th Avenue South — all of them clustered around the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) and Interstate 5. The corridor is a transit hub by design, which is exactly what makes it a trafficking corridor: the same infrastructure that moves ordinary travelers moves predators, and the budget-motel segment of the lodging market has historically absorbed the predictable fallout of that overlap.
Why This Corridor Is a Predictable Trafficking Hot Zone
This is not a regional stereotype; it is a structural fact that the federal filing recites and that the law has long recognized. Hotels in close proximity to a major international airport, intersecting interstate freight corridors, with high daily-turnover rates, cash-friendly check-in flows, and low staff-to-room ratios, are precisely the environment in which commercial sexual exploitation clusters. We do not say that to blame the corridor — we say it because it is the reason the industry had every opportunity to know, and the reason the “we didn’t know” defense fails.
The Federal Civil Lawsuit in Tacoma — Why It Matters to You Even If You Were Not M.K.
We want to be clear about what the federal complaint filed in Tacoma in April 2024 is and is not. It is a civil lawsuit — a private action by a survivor, not a criminal case by the government. It alleges violations of the TVPRA and related state-law claims against G6 Hospitality and the other named defendants. It is, at the time of this writing, an active, ongoing federal case in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
It matters to you for three reasons, even if you are a different survivor who was trafficked at a different time at a Motel 6 or comparable property:
- The legal theory is established. A federal court in this district has accepted that a survivor can pursue a TVPRA case against the Motel 6 / Studio 6 family in this corridor. That theory is no longer speculative.
- The discovery record is being built. Every document, every internal email, every training record, every prior-incident report, every staffing schedule that the federal case pulls out of G6 becomes part of the public record. We will read that record, cite that record, and use that record in your case.
- The standard of care is being litigated. The Motel 6 family cannot credibly claim, in your case, that the pattern alleged in the federal complaint is unusual or unforeseeable — the federal complaint is the public, on-the-record statement of the pattern.
If you are a different survivor, your case is a different case. We will not subsume your case into the federal case. We will file your case separately, with your own preservation letter, your own damages, your own voice. But we will use the federal case as a roadmap, and the federal case as leverage.
The Insurance-Adjuster Playbook — and How We Beat Each Move
If you file an insurance claim or, more likely, a civil claim against the corporate defendants, you will not be negotiating with a neutral third party. You will be negotiating with claim handlers working for the company’s insurance program, or with in-house corporate claims personnel whose job is to settle for as little as possible, as fast as possible, and with a release that forecloses every other claim you might have. We know the playbook because we have been on the other side of it — our own team includes attorneys who spent years inside the insurance-defense world and now use that knowledge for survivors. Here is what the defense will try, and how we beat it.
Play 1: “Let’s just take a quick check and we’ll make this go away.”
The defense will offer a small settlement, often within days or weeks of the first call, in exchange for a broad release of all claims — federal TVPRA, Washington state-law negligent security, future damages, everything. The number will sound generous to a survivor who has never had a six-figure check in her life. The counter: We never sign a global release before we know the full scope of the harm. PTSD and complex trauma often surface months or years after the rescue; medical and life-care damages compound over time. A quick check that closes the case is almost always under-compensated. We will tell you in plain terms when an early offer is real money in your hand versus when it is the company buying silence at a discount. You decide, not us — but the decision is informed, not pressured.
Play 2: “Can you just give us a recorded statement so we can ‘process’ this?”
The defense will request a recorded statement, framed as routine and helpful. The recorded statement is engineered to lock in a version of events that minimizes the company’s exposure. “I’m okay with everything that happened” or “I don’t really remember” or “It wasn’t really like that” are statements that come out of a recorded statement and then anchor every negotiation that follows. The counter: No recorded statement. Period. We provide written documentation on our schedule, with our preparation, in our format. Anything you say to the defense before we have completed our investigation can be used against you, no matter how friendly the conversation feels.
Play 3: “We need you to sign a medical authorization so we can ‘verify’ your claim.”
The defense will request blanket access to your medical and counseling records, framed as routine. A broad medical authorization lets the defense dig into your entire medical history looking for prior trauma, prior mental-health treatment, anything they can use to reframe your current suffering as something you were already dealing with. The counter: We negotiate a tailored, time-bounded, condition-specific authorization. Your entire medical history is not the case. The harm from this trafficking is the case. The defense gets access to what is relevant, on terms we control.
Play 4: “This is just a criminal matter — we have nothing to do with the trafficker.”
The defense will try to push the case to the trafficker — who is, of course, judgment-proof or incarcerated or both. The counter: The TVPRA exists precisely because the trafficker is rarely the only party with money. The motel took the room money, the franchisor took the royalty, the platform took the booking fee. The federal statute gives us the right to pursue every entity that benefited. The motel cannot wash its hands of the cash drawer.
Play 5: “We are a good corporate citizen. We would never knowingly participate in trafficking.”
The defense will invoke the company’s “zero-tolerance policy” as if it were a defense. The counter: A zero-tolerance policy is a promise. The proof is the conduct. A company that publishes a zero-tolerance policy and then accepts hundreds of dollars in cash from the same trafficker for years, while staff look the other way, has not kept its promise. The promise is the floor; the conduct is the measurement.
The 72-Hour Roadmap — What We Do in the First 72 Hours After You Call
The first 72 hours are the most important hours in the case. Here is what we do, in order, and what you can do to help.
The First 24 Hours
- We listen. We hear your story, on your terms, at your pace. You do not have to tell it all in one call. We will meet you where you are.
- We protect your identity. Communications are confidential. We do not name you in any filing, communication, or to the defense until you authorize it.
- We send a litigation-hold letter to the motel, the property-level operating company, and the brand parent, by certified mail, on the day you retain us. The letter preserves every category of record identified above.
- We send a parallel preservation letter to any third-party platform defendants under the FOSTA carveout, naming the records we need preserved.
- We refer you to a trauma-informed therapist and to victim-services resources before any deposition or intensive case work. Your safety and your mental health are first.
The First 72 Hours
- We file the case in the appropriate venue, with the appropriate defendants, and the appropriate federal and Washington state-law claims. We do not rush the filing; we do not delay it either.
- We issue document subpoenas to the property’s police-call history, any criminal investigative file, and any prior civil-claim history.
- We retain a life-care planner and a forensic economist to begin building the damages case. The life-care planner is the expert who prices out the lifetime medical, mental-health, and economic cost of the trafficking and its aftermath. The forensic economist is the expert who prices out the lost earnings and earning capacity.
- We coordinate with law enforcement if you choose to make a criminal report. We do not pressure you in either direction. The choice is yours, and we will support whichever choice you make.
The Days and Weeks After
- We take depositions of the property manager, the front-desk staff, the housekeeping staff, the regional manager, and the corporate trainers. We take the deposition of the trafficker if he is in custody. We take the deposition of any prior survivor with similar facts.
- We engage experts — human-trafficking subject-matter experts, security-industry experts, forensic accountants, life-care planners. We are not afraid of experts. The defense will use them; we will use them better.
- We negotiate from a position of proof, not pressure. If the defense is ready to settle for a real number, we settle. If the defense is not, we try the case.
The Washington State Tort Machine You Are Up Against
The case is not a single filing in federal court. It is a coordinated set of legal claims, evidence-anchored, in the venue that gives you the best chance. Here is the architecture.
Federal Court — the TVPRA Claim
The federal case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is the spine of the action. It is brought under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a) and, where appropriate, includes state-law claims under the court’s supplemental jurisdiction. The federal court is the right venue because (i) the federal statute lives there, (ii) the FOSTA carveout applies, (iii) the Western District of Washington is a sophisticated forum that understands corporate accountability, and (iv) the case can be tried to a King County / SeaTac federal jury.
Washington State Court — the Negligent-Security Claim
The Washington state-law negligent-security and premises-liability claims can be filed in the U.S. District Court as supplemental claims, or they can be filed separately in Washington Superior Court for King County. We typically file them with the federal case for case-management efficiency, but the choice of forum is strategic and we will explain the tradeoffs in plain English.
The Federal Criminal Track — Your Choice
You may also choose to make a federal criminal report under 18 U.S.C. § 1591 (sex trafficking) and related statutes. The federal criminal case is the government’s case, not yours. Your civil case is independent. We can coordinate with federal law enforcement without compromising your civil rights, but the choice to make a criminal report is yours and yours alone.
The Confidentiality of Your Case
A trafficking case is, by its nature, a private matter. We do not name you in any public filing without your written authorization. We do not discuss your case with anyone outside the firm without your authorization. We protect your identity in every filing, every communication, and every negotiation. The defense will not learn your identity from us until you are ready.
We do, however, file the case under seal where appropriate, and we work with the court to protect identifying information in every public document. Your privacy is part of how we protect you.
What You Should Do Right Now — If You Are a Family Member Reading This
If a family member or close friend has been trafficked at a Motel 6, Studio 6, or comparable property in King County, here is what you should do right now.
- Believe her. The most important thing you can do is the first thing. Many survivors of trafficking were not believed for years. Believe her.
- Help her document. Help her write down what she remembers. Help her preserve screenshots and receipts. Help her identify medical providers who can corroborate the harm.
- Do not pressure her to call a lawyer today. She needs to be ready. Help her know that the door is open and the consultation is free. The decision is hers.
- If she is ready, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. We will walk you both through the case.
The Architecture of the Federal TVPRA Case Against a National Motel Brand
We lay out the architecture here so the reader can see how the case is built. This is not a single filing; it is a coordinated set of legal claims against a coordinated set of defendants, all anchored in a set of records that the survivor’s story tells us to find.
Layer 1: The Federal TVPRA Claim Against the Operator and the Brand
The primary federal claim is under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a) against the property-level operating company (the LLC that actually runs the motel) and against G6 Hospitality as the brand parent that knowingly benefited. The four elements — knowingly benefited, participation in a venture, the venture violated the TVPRA, and knew or should have known — are pleaded separately and supported with the survivor’s specific facts.
Layer 2: The Federal TVPRA Claim Against the Franchisor Structure
Where the franchisor or parent company has crossed the line from brand-holder to operator — through operational control, brand standards that dictate staffing or security, or direct involvement in the property’s security program — the federal claim extends to the franchisor as well. The federal complaint in Tacoma names the parent alongside the operating company. We do the same analysis in your case.
Layer 3: The FOSTA Carveout Against the Platform
The federal TVPRA claim extends to the online platforms that hosted the trafficker’s marketing, booking, or communications, under the FOSTA carveout at 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(5). These defendants are pursued in the same federal case.
Layer 4: The Washington Negligent-Security and Premises-Liability Claim
The Washington state-law negligent-security claim, filed in the same federal case under supplemental jurisdiction, layers on top of the federal TVPRA claim. The Washington claim is brought under common-law premises-liability principles and the RCW 43.280.110 training-requirement standard.
Layer 5: Damages — Economic, Non-Economic, and Punitive
The damages layer pulls together the lifetime medical, mental-health, life-care, lost-earnings, pain-and-suffering, loss-of-enjoyment, and punitive damages. Washington’s pure comparative-fault rule (RCW 4.22.005) governs the apportionment of any fault. The federal TVPA’s authorization of punitive damages, layered on top of Washington’s lack of non-economic damage caps, is the favorable combination for a King County / SeaTac federal jury.
The Specific Evidence We Need From You
To build your case, we need the following from you. None of this requires you to relive every detail at our first meeting. We will work with you at your pace.
The Trafficking Itself
- Dates and locations of the trafficking, as best you can recall
- The name of the trafficker and any aliases
- The properties where the trafficking occurred, including any room numbers you remember
- The cash amounts paid, if you know or can estimate
- The names of other survivors you encountered, if any
- The names of law enforcement officers or victim-services advocates you spoke with, if any
The Motel Side
- Any prior stays at the property, with dates
- Any prior stays at other Motel 6 or Studio 6 properties
- Any communications with the property, including text messages, emails, or in-app messages
- Any complaints you or someone else made to the property about the trafficker, the room, or the conduct
The Medical and Mental-Health Side
- The names of any medical providers you have seen for physical or mental-health care related to the trafficking
- The names of any therapists, counselors, or victim-services advocates
- A release we can use to obtain those records (we will help you prepare it)
The Financial Side
- Lost wages, if any
- Lost education, if any
- Lost career opportunities, if any
- Any out-of-pocket costs related to the trafficking or its aftermath
We are not asking for perfect recall. We are asking for what you have. The proof is in the records, and we know how to find the records.
The Survivor-Centered Approach to a TVPRA Case
A TVPRA case is, ultimately, about a survivor’s voice. The case is built around her story, and the case is won or lost on whether that story is told credibly, with proof, to a jury. Our approach is survivor-centered.
The Trauma-Informed Practice
We are not therapists. We are lawyers. We do, however, work with trauma-informed therapists, victim-services advocates, and survivor-led organizations to ensure that the legal process does not re-traumatize the survivor. The deposition is taken with care. The medical record is gathered with consent. The courtroom is approached with respect. The survivor’s dignity is the first thing we protect.
The Confidentiality
We do not name you in any public filing without your written authorization. We do not discuss your case with anyone outside the firm without your authorization. We do not allow the defense to publicize your identity. Your privacy is the foundation of your case.
The Survivor-Led Decisions
You decide whether to make a criminal report. You decide whether to file a civil case. You decide whether to settle. You decide whether to go to trial. We advise. We never pressure. The case is yours.
The Map of the Federal Civil Action
The federal complaint filed in Tacoma in April 2024 is the first public federal case against the Motel 6 / Studio 6 family in this corridor. It is the roadmap for the next cases. The map it lays out is straightforward.
- Plaintiff: M.K. and others, as identified in the complaint.
- Defendants: G6 Hospitality LLC, its parent, and third-party technology vendors.
- Venue: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma Division.
- Claims: Federal TVPRA and related state-law claims.
- Posture: Active litigation at the time of this writing.
The case is the survivor’s voice, in court, under oath, against a national brand. It is the model for what a TVPA case in the Western District of Washington looks like. We are not the firm that filed the original Tacoma case, and we do not speak for that firm or that plaintiff. We are the firm that survivors, or their families, call when they want a separate, independent advocate.
Free Consultation. No Fee Unless We Win.
We work on contingency. We advance the costs. We do not get paid unless we recover. The free consultation is the first meeting — on the phone, by video, or in person — at no cost to you. The first meeting is the beginning of the case; it is not a sales call. We will tell you in plain terms what the case is worth, what the proof looks like, what the risks are, and what the path forward is. We will tell you if we are the right firm, and we will tell you if we are not.
Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. Or reach out through our contact page. Hablamos Español. The consultation is confidential, and it is free.
The Bottom Line
The federal complaint filed in Tacoma in April 2024 against G6 Hospitality, the parent of Motel 6 and Studio 6, is the first public federal civil case in this corridor to walk through the TVPRA’s beneficiary door against a national hotel brand. It is the roadmap for the next cases. The case is the survivor’s voice, in court, under oath, against a national brand.
The federal TVPRA framework, the Washington personal-injury framework, and the evidence-discipline approach apply. The 10-year federal clock is the operative deadline. The 30- to 90-day CCTV overwrite is the operative evidence clock. The red-flag pattern is the operative proof. The case is winnable, and the case is worth fighting.
We are the firm. We are ready. The free consultation is 1-888-ATTY-911. The conversation is confidential. Hablamos Español. The decision to call is yours. The decision to preserve the proof is yours. The decision to fight is yours. We are here when you are.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is built on its own proof, in its own venue, for its own survivor. We are ready to build yours.
1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win.