Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Civil and Criminal Cases in California

I have the Attorney General of the state of California suing a contractor on my behalf and a civil attorney suing the same contractor.

Can I collect twice with for damages. Since these are two seperate suits? Is getting a judgement on the criminal side affect the outcome of the civil side? Or can I use a judgement from the criminal side to boost my civil case? What is the fine line in asking for damages? How can the Deputy Attorney General ask me what I want to happen when the case has already been filed?


Asked on 6/19/07, 8:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Civil and Criminal Cases in California

Your question doesn't make much sense. Is the attorney general is suing the contractor, or is the contractor being prosecuted criminally? They are not the same thing. In fact, prosecutions would almost always be handled by the local D.A. and not the A.G. If the A.G. is involved the case is almost surely civil, but there are many types of civil actions the A.G. might bring and you have not provided enough information to tell us what is going on.

Regardless of what is happening, you cannot recover twice for the same injury. If you are awarded restitution in a criminal case and damages for the same harm in a civil case, the one you collect first will be offset against the other. You may be able to prevail in a civil case on matters like emotional distress and punitive damages which the criminal case (assuming there is one) won't cover, but you should not expect to reap a windfall this way.

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Answered on 6/19/07, 8:58 pm


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