Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Taking Advantage of Drunkenness

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Having said that, Virginia Code Section 18.2-61 (criminal rape) not only prohibits sexual intercourse by force but also "through the use of the complaining witness's mental incapacity or physical helplessness." Conviction under this section is punishable by a sentence of 5 to life. There are also several less serious criminal sexual assaults punishable under this article.

On the civil question, certainly you can sue the perpetrators for the foreseeable results of their conduct regardless of whether they were actually convicted of a crime based on the same underlying facts. Of course, a criminal conviction makes for a stronger case and, if criminally convicted, the perpetrators could have to pay medical bills in the form of restitution. A good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) example of this was the OJ Simpson case; he was not guilty criminally but was held civilly responsible for his conduct. I had a similar case several years ago in which my client's son, a high school student, had been found guilty of a criminal assault and battery of a female student. Her family sued his for damages, thinking that his father had a homeowner's insurance policy that provided coverage. During pre-trial discovery, that was found not to be the case and, because my clients had relatively few assets of their own, the girl's family decided not to pursue the civil action. After all, spending the money to get a judgment that they couldn't collect on would only have added insult to injury.