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Litigating Parallel Personal Injury Cases and Criminal Prosecution

Managing the Competing Interests of Defendants, Injured Parties, Insurance Carriers, and Law Enforcement

Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A

This program is included with the Strafford CLE Pass. Click for more information.
This program is included with the Strafford All-Access Pass. Click for more information.

Conducted on Thursday, August 26, 2021

Recorded event now available

or call 1-800-926-7926

This CLE course will prepare counsel defending or involved in personal injury lawsuits to anticipate and respond to parallel investigations and proceedings by U.S. federal and state criminal and civil enforcement authorities. The panel will review how the two types of matters affect one another and how they differ regarding discovery, sources of evidence, and other areas. The program will offer strategies for cooperation with criminal counsel to avoid sabotaging the defense in either case.

Description

Many cases involve simultaneous criminal, civil, and regulatory actions arising out of the same events against individuals personally involved in an incident, company executives or manager, and even companies themselves. Trucking and commercial vehicle accidents, auto accidents, fires, floods, structural collapses, and environmental incidents, for example, can spawn both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution.

Discovery in the civil case may be the genesis of criminal prosecution. Defendants should reasonably anticipate that documents and reports disclosed in the civil case will become evidence in criminal cases. Counsel should understand how government agencies and law enforcement conduct investigations and prosecutions.

Parallel proceedings breed competing interests between the injured parties, insurance carriers, and law enforcement creating problems for the defense. Individual defendants must be careful to protect the attorney-client privilege. Invocation of Fifth Amendment rights may damage the civil case. If the civil case is tried first, counsel must pay careful attention to protecting the criminal defendants' rights.

Listen as this experienced panel guides counsel in quickly responding in an organized and strategic way on multiple fronts and strategies for communicating and coordinating the defense of the parallel cases.

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Outline

  1. How parallel civil and criminal matters may arise
  2. How government agencies and law enforcement investigate
  3. Fifth Amendment privilege
  4. Work product and attorney-client privilege
  5. The preclusive effect of one case on the other

Benefits

The panel will review these and other pivotal issues:

  • How do government agencies and law enforcement conduct investigations and prosecutions?
  • What kind of discovery from the criminal case is available to the civil litigants?
  • When may the client exercise the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in the civil proceeding?
  • Which case should be resolved first, and what factors should be considered?

Faculty

Brusca, Michael
Michael A. Brusca

Partner
Davis & Brusca

Mr. Brusca dedicates his practice to representing vulnerable individuals and their families in wrongful death,...  |  Read More

Hashemi, Arash
Arash Hashemi

Attorney
Law Offices of Arash Hashemi

Mr. Hashemi has handled a wide variety of civil & criminal cases. Ranging from a simple name...  |  Read More

Staton, Georgia
Georgia Staton

Partner
Jones Skelton & Hochuli

Ms. Staton has more than 46 years of experience representing governmental entities, including state, counties and...  |  Read More

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Strafford will process CLE credit for one person on each recording. All formats include course handouts.

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