Q&A: Can the same incident result in both a criminal case and a civil case?

That depends on whether or not your definition of criminal cases includes violations of the traffic code. It’s quite common for the same collision to result in both a traffic citation and a civil lawsuit.

Outside of traffic offenses, it’s not as common but does happen when the crime has injured a third party.

In Kentucky, we have a statute that reads:

A person injured by the violation of any statute may recover from the offender such damages as he sustained by reason of the violation, although a penalty or forfeiture is imposed for such violation.

KRS 446.070. That means even if a criminal has been fined or gone to jail for a crime that injured you, you can still sue the criminal to recover your damages.

Many civil suits are premised on the claim that the defendant has violated a state statute and the plaintiff has been injured by this violation, although again these are usually motor-vehicle collisions or other situations where the defendant likely has liability coverage in effect.

Note that deliberate torts are generally excluded from coverage by insurers — you can’t buy personal-liability insurance and then go beating people up expecting their claims will be covered. For that, Kentucky’s Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund may be able to provide help. See http://cvcb.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx.

Are you an attorney?

We often handle cases referred to us by other attorneys. If you have a prospective client with a personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, or nursing home case, we may be able to work with you in providing a resolution.

This is a blog post, not specific legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is intended or created.