Shari Karney

Discovering repressed incest While practicing as an attorney in 1983, Shari was asked by a mother to take on a child custody case where the mother thought her 3-year-old daughter was being sexually abused by her ex-husband. While she was questioning the ex-husband on the stand during cross-examination regarding the incest she began to scream and yell and lose control without understanding why. As the witness talked, Shari has claimed she became nauseated and sweaty. She has claimed that she kept hearing the sound of typing in the back of the courtroom, but no one was there. When the witness gave an excuse for touching his daughter's genitals, she screamed, "These men just get away with it!" and leapt into the witness box and tried to strangle him. The judge cited her for contempt, sent her to jail for two days and ordered her into therapy. It was in therapy that she has claimed that she remembered her own childhood molestation by her brother and her father, who was a writer. In 1988, Karney stated that she “never actually sued [her] brother and father because [she doesn’t] need the money."

Incest survivor activism

Shari began taking incest survivor cases helping the victims sue their families in civil court to win legal compensation in order to be reimbursed for therapy and other costs.

Senate Bill 108

From 1985 until 1991 Shari, along with San Francisco attorney Mary R. Williams and California state senator Bill Lockyer, attempted to pass Senate Bill 108. During the Senate hearings, Shari testified to her own molestation by her father and brother. and took effect January 1, 1991, permits "delayed discovery" of childhood sexual abuse decades after that abuse has occurred.

Some psychologists and therapists of incest survivors see lawsuits as a last resort or capable of causing more damage because it cuts the victim off from the family or because the experience may even compound the victimization based on the difficult burden of proof in a court of law,

Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story In 1991, NBC bought the rights to her story and developed a movie called Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story. The movie was released in 1993 as a television film directed by Bill Corcoran, written by Susan Nanus, and starring Melissa Gilbert.

Television appearances

In 1991 Shari appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo, Today, Home Show, Larry King Live, and ABC Primetime television programs to educate members of the public about their new legal rights under SB 108.

Barwinners In 1981, Karney began tutoring for the California Bar Exam. This would later become a company called Barwinners. Barwinners is no longer owned or operated by Karney.