Criminal record

PAhr

Can a person's criminal record come up in a civil case? This person is in a position of authority (decision maker). The crime is not fraud or anything of that nature but I'm concerned that it may show very poor judgement on this person's part. I'm only concerned because some of this activity may have occurred while this person was at work.

Don D

Depends probably on two things: How crafty the prosecutor is and how awake the defense attorney is.

deniseE

It depends on the venue and the ability of his counsel to convince the judge that prior bad acts hold no bearing on the current case.

If the events surrounding the crime are similar the judge may rule in favor of allowing the information in, since it will establish a pattern of behavior...however, if the events are not even related the judge may be more likely to rule that the testimony has no merit in the case.

If this impacts your employer...I would speak with your attorney as soon as possible!

PAhr

The two cases don't seem to have anything in common on the face of it. This person just got arrested for a DUI and has now admitted to a long period of alcohol usage although I'm not certain if he actually drank while at work. The concern is if this person drank while at work, did it affect his decision making abilities in regards to the employee that is now suing.

Whatever

You have to speak to an attorney. Try to look at it from the ee's attorney's point of view. You have a decision maker who may or may not been impaired on the job who has shown poor judgement by driving while impaired. You may see no connected, but I bet the ee's attorney does.

PAhr

That's what I was wondering. To our knowledge this employee was never intoxicated or used alcohol while working but as part of his arrest he must attend alcohol abuse classes and admit to long term problems with alcohol. I'm just hoping the two issues don't mix. Like I said, there is no knowledge of alcohol usage while he was on the job but I'm unsure if his lack of good judgement in this episode could be used to show a lack of good judgement where this case is concerned.

Don D

Don't forget that being an alcoholic is not a crime, nor is a long history of using alcohol, since alcohol is legal. In most jurisdictions, except at the Canadian border, first and second offense DUI is a misdemeanor unless other things resulted, like property crime or death while DUI. I'm no lawyer; but neither am I a hangman. It seems quite a stretch to imagine that because he may be guilty of poor judgement in his decision to drink and drive, that may translate somehow to his work ethic. You might be trying hard to connect dots where none exist.

Whatever

Don't attorneys do that all the time?

Don D

I think the difference is that the attorney will draw a light line in pencil to connect the dots and will erase that line when he sees the danger of liability in assuming his line is indelible or perhaps not factual.

The HR person sometimes tends to launch forth, connecting the dots in indelible ink, assuming the line is a given.....thus creating potential liability for the company.