NCJ Number
73666
Date Published
Unknown
Length
15 pages
Annotation
After an overview of what is currently being done to enhance victims' rights, this article discusses civil litigation on behalf of crime victims.
Abstract
Current victim services include direct services (witness assistance, counseling, etc.), compensation, and restitution. Litigation on behalf of victims is a relatively new area of law, particularly at the appellate level. Victim-plaintiff litigators in a civil courts are saying to the defendants that they injured the clients, or that by their willful negligent conduct the clients were injured by another, and the defendants should respond in damages. Such litigation, if successful, vindicates the rights of the immediate victim, and, if a body of victims' rights law develops, it could help deter potential criminals and third parties responsible for preventing victimization from injurious behavior. Victims' rights litigation can be classified into two areas: victim v. perpetrator and victim v. third party. In the former class of cases, the practical aspect of uncollectable judgments may be a bar to successful litigation by victims. In the latter class of cases, in many instances collectibility is no bar; the defendants are not judgment-proof. Problems of immunity exist, although the trend seems to be away from absolute sovereign tort immunity. In any event, if a person has been victimized through the negligence of a non-immune third party, and if the elements of negligence (duty, breach, and proximate cause) can be alleged and proved, then the crime victim as plaintiff should have the same status in the legal system as other parties injured by the negligence of others have had for decades. Footnotes which include references are provided.