On October 3, 1995, prolific football star and actor O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in a criminal trial. The country was shocked – there appeared to be a myriad of evidence pointing to Simpson as the clear culprit. However, there was one particular piece of evidence that kept the jury from convicting Simpson – the glove tied to the crime scene did not fit on his hand. But why would the fact that the glove did not fit mean that the jury must acquit?
Tag: Probable Cause
Using Criminal Proceedings in Personal Injury Cases
Many personal injury cases arise from criminal conduct. For example, if you are hit by a drunk driver, you have a negligence claim against the drunk driver, and the driver can be arrested for drunk driving. If the drunk driver is arrested, the criminal charges against him will likely be resolved before the civil trial. While the jury is still out on what the average time of civil and criminal cases are post-COVID, [1] Texas law requires courts to prioritize criminal cases over civil ones to protect a defendant’s right to a speedy trial.[2] Since the criminal charge and the personal injury lawsuit arose out of the exact same accident, much of the evidence useful in one lawsuit will be useful in the other, too. Criminal cases produce a number of documents and evidence that can help a personal injury plaintiff win her case: police reports, police investigatory documents, evidence seized from the defendant, witness statements, material disclosed voluntarily by third parties, and even information shared by overseas authorities.
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