Buffalo personal injury lawsuits against drunk drivers who cause a serious injury almost always involve a parallel criminal case. The injured party is rightly seeking compensation for the injuries caused by the driver while the government seeks to impose criminal penalties for the same conduct.
There are several reasons that a Buffalo personal injury attorney may wish to delay in moving forward with the civil case against the drunk driver until the criminal case is finished. One of these involves simply trying to stay out of the way of the individuals conducting the criminal investigation. While there is no bar to proceeding with an investigation in the civil case, in drunk driving cases a personal injury attorney usually will want to be helpful to the members of law enforcement or other agencies investigating the criminal case – sometimes this means simply leaving them alone to do their jobs.
Of equal importance, many drunk driving cases are resolved through the defendant pleading guilty to some charge instead of going to trial. A plea of guilty in a criminal case is often admissible in the civil case as evidence of the defendant’s guilt. As a result, the personal injury attorney may wish to see how the criminal case is concluded before getting too far into the civil lawsuit.
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