Eric Stanton Anaya
Criminal Defense Attorney | Any plea is considered a guilty plea and can be used against you in a civil case.
If you take a reduction in the charge it could mean that the case was not strong enough to proceed and a civil attorney could use that to your advantage.
If you are satisfied with the current plea offer consult with your insurance company and a civil attorney before you take a the plea agreement.
This is excellent advise.
If you are involved in any 'defensive situation' where you had to use some weapon or just your empty hands for self protection...
in addition to criminal charges possibilities, you will also have the certainty of a civil suit filed against you.
If it happens, you immediately need the 'life line' of a criminal defense attorney's involvement to guide you through the chaos and before you make statements or take actions that will be used against you both criminally an civilly...and, used against you, by a liability insurance company [Homeowner's/umbrella...to dispute your civil defense and indemnity coverage.
As a claims examiner, I would recommend first and foremost to have a criminal attorney versed in self defense on a standby so you can make just one phone call and be sure a criminal attorney will respond immediately.
With your criminal defense attorney, then talk about the potential of a law suit, and discuss the best way to put your liability insurance co. on notice and address the effect of any plea bargain might have on your coverage contract.
No question that your insurance company should be placed on notice in anticipation of litigation.
In my office when we would get such an assignment, we would immediately launch an investigation [most likely under reservation of rights letter to the insured]...
We would find that the police report might not be quickly available, pending the resolution of criminal charges which would limit our investigation.
We then would contact the insured's criminal lawyer asking for a sit down interview of the insured.
The criminal lawyer would, correctly, initially refuse to allow the interview as well as allow other evidence in his criminal file to 'leak' into the civil file of the Insurance company...because the prosecutor could subpoena the civil file as well as the case assigned investigator to appear in court on the criminal trial...something that has happened to me countless times.
It is a can of worms, and you in such a situation, will be totally disoriented in the mental chaos and prone to many costly mistakes.
You need the immediacy of a criminal defense lawyer who can also address the best way to place your insurance company on notice and work with them in anticipation of civil action and the safeguard of your defense and indemnity coverage under your policy.
You fail here in this process...and you will fry in financial hell, maybe from behind bars.
Any plea is considered a guilty plea and can be used against you in a civil case. If you take a reduction in the charge it could mean that the case was not strong enough to proceed and a civil attorney could use that to your advantage. If you are satisfied with the current plea offer consult with your insurance company and a civil attorney before you take a the plea agreement.
Also you may want to remember that the very fact you might carry a weapon or that you study martial arts...will be used by the prosecution against you.
Be very careful about what you post about yourself on the web, and extreme careful in posting videos of yourself looking/talking like a 'tough guy'...telling stories of how great of a fighter you were/are etc., because all of that will be a bonus falling into the lap of a prosecutor.