Getting Compensation When You’re a Victim of a Crime or Intentional Act

In many of our minds, we tend to think that if someone commits a crime, that is for the criminal justice system to handle. While the criminal can be punished and perhaps put in jail, criminal acts aren’t something you can sue for and get compensation for — at least, that’s the belief.

The truth however is quite the opposite. You can sue for intentional acts, and acts that are even criminal in nature.

Insurance Coverage for Intentional Acts

One primary problem that arises in any criminal act where you are suing for damages, is insurance; many insurance policies will not cover intentional acts, and they are often listed as exclusions. Insurance policies normally only cover accidents or negligence or things out of our control.

Often, there may be a combination of both intentional, and negligent behavior, which would allow insurance to cover any of the victim’s losses.

For example in a negligent security case, the criminal who committed a crime may have acted intentionally, but the property owner that didn’t have security or didn’t do enough to protect its patrons from criminal activity, may have been negligent, thus triggering insurance coverage.

Burden of Proof and Standards for Conviction

The criminal and civil systems differ in many ways.

In criminal court, the state must find that the Defendant (the accused) is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But in civil cases, such as negligence or injury cases, the jury only needs to find negligence by a preponderance of the evidence — essentially, 51% of the evidence.

This means that it is possible for a Defendant to win a criminal case, and be found not guilty, but on the exact same facts, the Defendant may be found to owe money to compensate the victim (this, famously, happened to OJ Simpson, who was acquitted of the murder of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson, but then later, was sued by the family of Ron Goldman).

Because of the higher burden of proof in criminal cases, State Attorneys are more likely to offer plea deals to Defendants, meaning that their case may never actually see the light of day in a courtroom.

What is important to know, is that it largely doesn’t matter what happens in a criminal court — even if the Defendant is found not guilty, you can still bring an injury case, and win, against that criminal Defendant.

What Kinds of Intentional Acts Can You Get Compensation For?

Almost any criminal action can result in civil liability — that is, you can sue for them and receive compensation for your injuries. One of the most common are battery claims — unwanted, intentional touching. This can also include sexual assault and battery.

Proving Damages

Note that unlike negligence claims which require that you prove you sustained some injury in order to demonstrate negligence, intentional acts do not require a showing of injury. Of course, having an injury can result in higher compensation from a jury, but legally there is no “minimum injury” that you must have when you are suing as a result of injuries sustained in a criminal, intentional act.

Injured because of some purposeful, intentional or criminal action? Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your injury or accident.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0784/Sections/0784.011.html