Something was done to you, and now there is a second injury: the bill for getting over the first one. California has had a fund for exactly this since 1965,⁷ and most people who qualify never hear of it.
The short answer: yes. The California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB) may reimburse "the expense of their outpatient mental health counseling in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000)" for a victim of crime, and for close surviving relatives of someone killed by a crime, and for the primary caretaker of a child victim.¹ Other family members and household members may receive up to $5,000.¹ The board may go above those figures where "dire or exceptional circumstances" require more treatment.¹ You have seven years to apply, counted from the crime, from your 21st birthday, or from the day you discovered the injury — whichever is later.² The eligibility section turns on injury as a direct result of a crime, not on an arrest or a conviction.³ The catch is the order of payment: CalVCB "pays only for expenses that aren't reimbursed by any other source," so insurance is billed first.⁴
Who counts as a victim
The statute pays three groups: "a victim," "a derivative victim," and a person who paid for a funeral, burial or crime-scene cleanup.³ A victim is a person who sustained injury or death "as a direct result of a crime" — physical injury, or "emotional injury and a threat of physical injury," or emotional injury alone from a list of specified serious offences.³ The crime must have occurred in California, or you must have been a California resident when it happened.³
A derivative victim is a family member, a member of the victim's household, or in some circumstances someone who witnessed the crime.³ That is the group that matters for the counselling benefit: a parent whose child was assaulted, a sibling of someone killed, a partner who lived through it in the next room.
How much counselling, exactly
Two tiers, in the statute's words.¹
- Up to $10,000 for "(i) a victim"; "(ii) a derivative victim who is the surviving parent, grandparent, sibling, child, grandchild, spouse, or fiancé of a victim of a crime that directly resulted in the death"; and "(iii) a derivative victim ... who is the primary caretaker of a minor victim."
- Up to $5,000 for derivative victims not in that list.
- More than either where "the claim is based on dire or exceptional circumstances that require more extensive treatment, as approved by the board."
Counselling counts toward the total award, which "may not exceed thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000)," rising to $70,000 "if federal funds for that increase are available."¹ CalVCB's own page states the ceiling as $70,000.⁴
Who can provide it
The counselling must come from a provider "licensed in the state in which the victim lives to provide those services, or who is properly supervised by a person who is licensed."¹ That includes associates and trainees under supervision — the people who staff most sliding-scale clinics. Since 1 January 2023, a provider licensed in the state you now live in qualifies even if that state is not California.⁵
Treatment started on or after 15 December 2022 needs a Mental Health Billing Intake form; the provider completes a treatment plan at the outset and keeps it on file for CalVCB to request, and files an additional treatment plan as you approach the sessions authorised.⁴ ⁷ The provider "must bill the applicant's insurance prior to submitting expenses to CalVCB."⁵ Many established trauma clinicians already do this paperwork; ask on the consult call whether they bill CalVCB.
Do I need a police report?
Not always. The general rule is that an application is denied if the victim "failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency."⁶ But the board must weigh your age, physical condition, psychological state, cultural and linguistic barriers, fear of retaliation, and capacity to cooperate.⁶ And the statute says outright that a claim based on domestic violence "shall not be denied solely because a police report was not made," and the same for sexual assault; for human trafficking a caseworker's attestation can stand in for a report.⁶ And for certain sexual offences and domestic-violence injuries, a victim's own felony conduct at the time is not treated as "involvement" — though the general grounds of provocation and foreseeability remain for every claim.⁶
The deadline, and why it moved
An application "shall be filed within seven years of the date of the crime, seven years after the victim attains 21 years of age, or seven years of the time the victim or derivative victim knew or in the exercise of ordinary diligence could have discovered that an injury or death had been sustained as a direct result of crime, whichever is later."² The board "may for good cause grant an extension."² For someone abused as a child, that clock runs from age 21, not from the abuse — the practical effect is that most people under 28 who were harmed as minors are still inside the window.
Where CalVCB sits in the order of payment
"CalVCB is a payor of last resort."⁴ Health insurance, Medi-Cal, workers' compensation, restitution and any civil recovery are billed first; the fund pays what those do not. If you have no insurance, it pays from the first session. If you have a plan with a high deductible, it can pay the part the plan leaves to you — which is often the whole bill until the deductible is met. How deductibles work →
Worked examples
Assaulted outside a bar; no insurance. A victim; up to $10,000 of counselling with a licensed or supervised provider, billed to CalVCB directly.
A mother whose teenager was sexually assaulted. The teenager is the victim (up to $10,000); the mother, as primary caretaker of a minor victim, is in the $10,000 tier too — a total shared between up to two caretakers, and available only where the minor's own claim is not denied or reduced.¹ No police report is required to apply on a sexual-assault claim.⁶
A man whose brother was killed four years ago. A surviving sibling of a homicide victim: the $10,000 tier, and three years left on the seven-year clock.¹ ²
Abuse at age 12, now 26, never reported. The seven years run from the 21st birthday, so the window is open until 28; the reporting factors the board must weigh include age at the time and psychological state.² ⁶
What to ask a therapist
"Do you bill CalVCB, and have you filed a treatment plan with them before?" A yes means the provider absorbs the paperwork. A no is not disqualifying — the forms are the provider's to file, and CalVCB publishes them — but it means you are the one who will bring the forms to the first session.
Q&A
Q: Does the person who hurt me have to be convicted first? A: The eligibility section does not make an arrest or a conviction a condition; it turns on injury as a direct result of a crime, and the domestic-violence and sexual-assault provisions say a claim cannot be denied solely for want of a police report.³ ⁶ The one wrinkle is narrow: a few of the emotional-injury-only categories in §13955 apply only where criminal charges were filed.³
Q: Is $10,000 a limit per year or in total? A: In total, per victim or derivative victim, unless the board approves more for dire or exceptional circumstances.¹
Q: Can my associate-level therapist bill CalVCB? A: Yes, if "properly supervised by a person who is licensed."¹
Q: I was hurt while in jail. Can I apply? A: Compensation is not granted for any period an applicant is held in a correctional institution, or while required to register as a sex offender.⁶
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Before the therapist, there is often an advocate. What you tell a rape crisis or domestic violence counsellor has its own privilege in the Evidence Code. Is it confidential? →
Sources
Cal. Government Code §13957(a)(2) and (b) — the $10,000 and $5,000 tiers, the persons in each, the shared caretaker cap "for not more than two derivative victims," the "dire or exceptional circumstances" provision, the licensed-or-supervised provider rule, and the $35,000 total rising to $70,000 with federal funds — california.public.law.
Cal. Government Code §13953 — the seven-year filing rule with its three starting points, "whichever is later," and the good-cause extension — california.public.law.
Cal. Government Code §13955 — who may apply (victim, derivative victim, funeral or cleanup payer), the injury and residency conditions — california.public.law.
California Victim Compensation Board, What Is Covered — the $70,000 maximum, "CalVCB is a payor of last resort," and the Mental Health Billing Intake and treatment-plan forms for treatment beginning on or after 15 December 2022 — victims.ca.gov.
California Victim Compensation Board, Mental Health Service Providers: Reimbursement — insurance billed first; providers licensed or supervised in the victim's state of residence eligible from 1 January 2023 under SB 877 — victims.ca.gov.
Cal. Government Code §13956 — involvement and cooperation grounds, the factors the board must consider, the domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking provisions on police reports, the felony-conduct-not-involvement rule for specified offences, and the correctional-institution bar — california.public.law.
California Victim Compensation Board, Mental Health Provider Benefit Information — "Established in 1965"; the $10,000 and $5,000 limits restated; a treatment plan "must be completed and kept on file by the end of the 3rd session" — victims.ca.gov.
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