Amy Clowrey from Switalski’s solicitors told the BBC she was surprised by the response from West Yorkshire Police.
“They’ve acknowledged that Fiona has suffered abuse but essentially have said that they aren’t responsible in any way for it,” she said.
“Publicly the authorities have apologised for their failures but then privately obviously they’ve taken a different approach.
“However, it is quite standard in these types of cases that the authorities don’t admit when they’ve done something wrong.”
Clowrey said the handling of survivors’ compensation claims by authorities could cause further distress and needed to change.
“One of the big things that came out of the [Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse] is that survivors need genuine apologies,” she said.
“It helps with the healing process and their recovery and we’re still not seeing that in the litigation arena, it’s still quite adversarial.
“I would like to see much more openness, transparency and apologies.”
Goddard and other abuse survivors quit their roles in the government’s inquiry into grooming gangs in October.
They had been due to sit on the inquiry’s victims and survivors liaison panel, but raised concerns about the suitability of the candidates shortlisted to chair the inquiry, arguing they should not have a background in policing or social work.
Goddard said at the time these services had “contributed most to the cover-up of the national mass rape and trafficking of children”.
Former children’s commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield was announced as chair in December.