HIV AND THE LAW

You may have heard in the media about people being taken to court for ‘reckless transmission of HIV’. It’s really important you understand this, and you can read all about it in the your rights pages.

In simple terms, legally speaking, if you are living with HIV, in order to be taken to court you would have to have done ALL of the following things:

  • Known you had HIV when you had sex with the person
  • Known how HIV was transmitted when you had sex with the person
  • Didn’t tell the person you had HIV
  • Didn’t use a condom
  • The person got infected with HIV from having sex with you.

If the person you had unprotected sex with then finds out they now have HIV, they have to decide to take you to court and they have to prove you intentionally gave them HIV.

So, from a legal point of view, you don’t have to tell the person that you are HIV positive, but you have to protect the person from HIV transmission by using a condom.