Often when a crime is prosecuted there is a victim. Frequently in cases involving personal injury, sexual impropriety and financial crime and in even in the context of the employer/employee relationship.
There is a stand alone right to of a victim to pursue the person charged with a crime themselves.Victims of crime often forget to pursue the culprit through the Civil Courts in Ireland. Admittedly, this is often because the person charged in the criminal case is not a person with assets but often the are as in the case of Mr. Stokes the culprit is pursued as Mr. Stokes has found out to his cost yesterday. I find it strange he was not legally represented in the civil case.The Judgement made against him is transportable to the UK and indeed to most other democracies so he may rue not having had lawyers in Court yesterday as the civil case could have been compromised on better terms and without as much further negative publicity, as a sportsman such conduct may affect future transfers!
An undefended civil judgement has consequences and the options to appeal are very narrow. If a person pleads guilty in criminal court to a crime then they have no legal defence to any personal injury action or other civil case taken against them and they can only in effect argue quantum of compensation.
The normal rule is that civil proceedings must wait until the conclusion of the criminal case and their are legal limits on the criminal accused contacting the victim for obvious reasons, but it is possible to navigate a course through such parallel legal proceedings.
For a person accused of a crime and also facing civil proceedings it is essential that the person does not ignore the civil proceedings especially if they have property of other assets
This is an informative blog post and the writer is expressing his opinion only on above case by way of commentary and does it not constitute legal advice. If you need legal advice on a legal matter speak with your lawyer.