Civil courts and criminal courts have more differences than similarities. When you visit a personal injury attorney for a consultation, and you realize that your medical bills after an accidental injury are unaffordable, your lawyer will inevitably spend a lot of time clearing up your misconceptions about the legal processes involved in collecting damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Unless you have studied law, most of your ideas about the legal system relate to the criminal court, since that is what gets the most coverage in the news media and in fictional dramas. For example, in criminal cases, defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the threshold for proving a defendant’s guilt is high because there is so much at stake; except in extraordinary cases, a criminal conviction stays on a person’s record forever, and for serious crimes, it can lead to prison time.
Even when there is strong evidence of a defendant’s case, the defendant can sometimes avoid a conviction on a technicality, because for the court to decide otherwise would be unjust. This means that it is often possible for an injured plaintiff to prevail in a case arising from an accident where a criminal court found that the at-fault driver was not criminally liable, even if no one doubts that the driver was drunk. If you suffered injuries in a car accident caused by a drunk driver who did not get a DWI, contact a Santa Fe car accident lawyer.
When the Drunk Driver Did Not Get a DWI Conviction
In the 18-month period, New Mexico added 16 officers to its Brady list, named after a Supreme Court decision. If an officer’s name is on the Brady list, it means that the officer has a history of misconduct with regard to criminal cases, such as lying on the witness stand or tampering with evidence. Therefore, the officer’s testimony becomes inadmissible in court. The addition of these 16 officers to the Brady list led to the dismissal of 306 DWI cases, where the dishonest officers had been present at the traffic stop.
If you got injured in any of those cases, it means that the drunk driver got away without criminal penalties. The evidence against the drunk driver still may be sufficient to enable you to prevail in a personal injury case in civil court; in fact, it probably is sufficient. To win a personal case, a plaintiff must only prove that there is a preponderance of the evidence, meaning a greater than 50% chance, that the defendant’s negligence caused the injuries.
Contact Slate Stern About Car Accidents Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in car accidents in New Mexico, where the driver was drunk but did not get a DWI conviction in criminal court. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
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Photo by Vinicius “amnx” Amano on Unsplash