After many commercial truck accidents, investigating authorities arrest the truck driver for some kind of criminal offense. In many ways this can be a boon to an injured accident victim, but the value of criminal charges to a civil case may not be clear right away. Because of that, people may wonder: How would a truck driver's pending criminal case affect a civil lawsuit?

Answer: Criminal charges faced by an allegedly-negligent trucker may help a civil suit by a) increasing the potential pool of evidence a personal injury attorney has to build a case and b) providing the attorney with insights about how the trucker and their employer will defend themselves.

In practical terms the U.S. employs two justice systems, not just one. The criminal system determines whether someone's actions have harmed society, while the civil system holds people accountable for the injuries they cause to one another.

It's important to realize that criminal charges against a truck driver won't automatically mean they or their employer owe anything directly to the victim. However, a criminal trial and the investigation before it may present certain advantages to an experienced personal injury attorney building a civil case based on the same incident. Let's look at those advantages.

Advantage 1: It's Hard for the Defense to Win a Case Two Times in a Row

One reason the U.S. Constitution doesn't let the government try someone twice for the same crime is that a prosecutor would have a massive advantage the second time, having already seen the defense's case before. The framers of our government saw how unfair that would be and wrote a prohibition into the Constitution to prevent that.

However, that doesn't apply when there's a criminal case and a civil case related to the same incident—the two aren't identical, so there are no double jeopardy concerns. However, there's enough overlap between them that the evidence used by a criminal prosecutor may be a free preview for the attorney handling your case. Here are some benefits we once gained from watching the criminal trial of a truck driver who hit our client:

• The prosecutor's arguments weren't strong enough to convince a jury to indict the trucker, which showed us the state's supporting evidence wasn't terribly compelling. We decided to build on what the prosecutor had by bringing in our own experts to further analyze the crash and its short- and long-term effects on our client.
• Several key witnesses who testified in the trucker's criminal case had criminal records of their own, but their testimony was impactful to the prosecution's arguments. We made sure to add those witnesses to our witness list for the victim's lawsuit due to their substantial contribution.
• The truck driver's blood-alcohol concentration was significantly higher at the time of the wreck than we'd realized. We only learned that because the authorities got a warrant for a blood draw, which a civil attorney doesn't have the legal power to do.
• The driver testified during his criminal trial, but based on the evidence we believe he lied on the stand to protect himself. That gave us an idea of what we might expect in a civil case against him, and also provided a potential opportunity to catch him being less than truthful.

At first glance, some of those may not appear especially helpful to our client's case. For example, the fact that the key witnesses had criminal records meant that their credibility could be questioned at trial. Furthermore, knowing the police hadn't done the best job in their initial investigation can be a disheartening starting point. Even if these were not ideal developments from our client's perspective, though, it benefited their case to know about them beforehand and see their effect on a different jury.

Advantage 2: More Evidence

Some may believe that the main benefit of charging a supposedly-negligent truck driver is that police and district attorneys will investigate the trucker first, and their findings will help the victims hold the trucker personally accountable. It doesn't actually work that way, though. Criminal charges only deal with the defendant's responsibility to the state, not personal liability to the accident victim. Despite that, sometimes the evidence presented in a criminal case may translate well over to a civil lawsuit—and anyone looking to sue is better off letting the state go first. But why?

In a criminal case, you have Fifth Amendment protection not to testify or self-incriminate if you're accused of doing something wrong. That protection doesn't exist in a civil case unless there's an ongoing criminal case as well. What that means in practice is civil attorneys must let the criminal case go first if they want to compel the accused to answer questions under oath. If they don't, the Fifth Amendment's protections would still apply and the accused could refuse to answer certain questions. As a matter of course, then, the criminal case almost always goes before the civil case.

Good truck accident attorneys often know how to cooperate with law enforcement and prosecutors, which may lead to sharing evidence between them. In many cases attorneys and private investigators may find evidence that police missed; similarly, law enforcement sometimes has access to evidence that lawyers don't. Thus, cooperating with one another sometimes strengthens the case for both.

Advantage 3: Learning What Evidence a Court Will Admit

Most people don't realize that before trial, much of the battle that goes on is about precisely what evidence a jury will be allowed to see. This holds true in both criminal and civil cases: Either the prosecutor or the plaintiff's attorney argues back and forth with defense, both trying to get important evidence either admitted or prohibited.

The criminal case functions as a sort of preview of what a court is likely to allow a jury to see. A common defense strategy is to recognize a potentially-damning piece of evidence and then motion to keep a jury from seeing it. If the jury already saw it in a criminal case, however, the truck driver's defense attorneys lose a lot of leverage. This gives your attorney firmer ground on which to build your case.

After the criminal trial I mentioned above was over, we obtained copies of the evidence the prosecutor used and incorporated it with further information gathered by our independent experts. Thanks to monitoring the trial, we also understood which witnesses worked well before a jury and where the crucial gaps in the police investigation were. That knowledge made our client's case that much stronger.

Does It Hurt My Case if the Truck Driver is Acquitted?

There's no downside to your case if the driver is charged criminally. You might think "But what if the truck driver is acquitted?" Won't that hurt it?" Not at all, actually. Why? Because civil and criminal trials use different standards of evidence. Prosecutors must convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty, which requires clear and compelling evidence. During a civil trial, however, an attorney must only show that the preponderance of evidence (meaning "more likely than not") points to the defendant's negligence as the cause of the damage. Even if a prosecutor can't make charges stick that doesn't mean there's insufficient evidence to hold the trucker liable, so as I said, you have nothing to lose if a truck driver goes through a criminal trial before your lawsuit.

Do I Win My Case Automatically if the Truck Driver is Convicted?

A prosecutor may be telling you that they're fighting for you in the criminal case, but that's not technically true. Their client is the state or federal government—that's who they win on behalf of. The truck driver's criminal case is entirely separate from a civil lawsuit against him. Strategically a conviction may be helpful to the victim's side of the story, but the burden is on you to go out and make your own case.

Grossman Law Can Help with Your Civil Case

Just because the truck driver who hurt you or a loved one is facing charges doesn't mean he or his employer are also required to admit liability. In our experience, trucking companies and their insurers will in fact do everything they can to fight against it.

That's where Grossman Law Offices can help. With decades of experience handling truck accident cases throughout the United States, the attorneys at Grossman Law have seen most every trick and tactic up the trucking and insurance companies' sleeves. If you've been hurt or lost someone in an accident with a negligent truck driver, we can help. Call now for a free and confidential consultation.