Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: lawsuite

The criminal case has nothing to do with it. You have two years from incident to bring a civil suit for tort claims for injury or death, or for property damage.

Re: lawsuite

There is no need to wait until the criminal case is over. If you do and if the criminal case takes a while, your civil case may be time-barred.

In many instances there is no criminal case. It wouldn't make sense to require plaintiffs to wait for the end of something that might never begin before they can sue. Making plaintiffs wait longer when there is a prosecution than when there isn't also wouldn't make much sense -- especially because prosecutors often take a long time before deciding whether to pursue a case.

Civil limitation periods begin either when the wrongful conduct occurred or, in some instances, either when the plaintiff learned of it or when a reasonable person would have found out about it, whichever is earlier. Related criminal prosecutions have no effect at all on these dates.

Re: lawsuite

There is no need to wait at all. What are the damages and are there assets to collect a settlement or judgment on? Call me directly.