Yes, you can still sue. A not-guilty verdict in criminal court does not touch your right to file a civil lawsuit for money damages. Most people don’t know this. Insurance companies count on that confusion.
Criminal cases and civil cases run on completely separate tracks with different rules, different standards, and different outcomes. A criminal case is the State of Colorado against the driver. The district attorney’s office at the Arapahoe County Justice Center handles it. You’re not a party to that case, you’re a witness in someone else’s prosecution.
Your civil lawsuit is yours. You bring it. You control it.
Here’s the difference that actually matters. In criminal court, the prosecutor must prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt”, the highest standard in our legal system. In your civil case, you only need to show the driver was at fault by a “preponderance of the evidence.” More likely than not. Think of it as 51% versus 99%. A jury in Arapahoe County criminal court might say “we’re not sure enough to convict,” and a civil jury looking at the same crash can still say “yes, this driver caused the wreck.”
We’ve seen this play out dozens of times right here in Greenwood Village and the surrounding area. A driver registers a.09 near the I-25 and Arapahoe Road interchange. The criminal defense attorney gets the breath test thrown out on a calibration technicality. Charges get knocked down to careless driving. The injured person assumes their case is gone.
It’s not gone. Not even close.
The criminal case asks “should this person go to jail?” Your civil case asks “should this person pay for the harm they caused?” Two different questions. Two different burdens of proof. And the evidence pool is different too, in your civil lawsuit, you can introduce things the criminal court excluded. You can depose the driver under oath. You can subpoena phone records, bar receipts, surveillance footage from restaurants along South Yosemite Street or anywhere in the DTC corridor.
Colorado’s modified comparative negligence law under C.R.S. § 13-21-111 still applies. As long as you were less than 50% at fault for the crash, you can recover damages. The other driver’s criminal outcome doesn’t change that math at all.
But timing matters, and this is where people get hurt. Colorado gives you three years from the date of a motor vehicle accident to file a civil lawsuit under C.R.S. § 13-80-101. If the crash caused a death, the wrongful death statute of limitations is two years under C.R.S. § 13-21-204. Criminal cases in Arapahoe County can drag on for a year or more. People wait to see what happens in criminal court, and that civil clock keeps ticking the whole time.
Don’t let a plea deal or an acquittal convince you that your options are gone. The criminal system serves the public. Your civil case serves you. If you were hurt by a drunk driver in Greenwood Village, talk to an attorney who understands both sides of this before your deadline passes.
The Burden of Proof Is Much Lower in a Civil DUI Case
This is the single most important thing to understand. Most people don’t realize it until we walk them through it.
In criminal court at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, the prosecutor has to prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” That’s the highest standard in our legal system. It means the jury can’t have any real doubt remaining. If even one juror isn’t sure, the case falls apart. That’s by design, criminal convictions carry jail time and serious consequences.
A civil lawsuit works completely differently.
In a civil case, you only need to show it’s “more likely than not” that the driver caused your injuries. Lawyers call this “preponderance of the evidence.” Think of it like a scale. If your side tips past 50%, you win. That’s the whole test.
What This Looks Like in Real Cases
Say a driver blows a.09 on a breath test along Arapahoe Road near the I-25 interchange. The criminal defense attorney gets the test thrown out because the officer didn’t follow proper calibration protocol. The DUI charge gets reduced to careless driving. The driver walks out of criminal court with minimal consequences.
But here’s what didn’t change. The driver still hit you. You still have a broken collarbone, $40,000 in medical bills, and six weeks of missed work. The breath test might be gone from the criminal case, but the police report, the officer’s field observations, witness statements, and your medical records all still exist. In a civil lawsuit, we can use every bit of that.
We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times in Greenwood Village and across Arapahoe County. The criminal case goes one way, the civil case goes the other direction entirely.
Why the Standards Are So Different
Criminal cases can put someone behind bars. The law demands near-certainty before that happens. A civil case is about money, about making you whole after someone hurt you through their carelessness. Different stakes, different rules.
Colorado’s modified comparative negligence statute, C.R.S. § 13-21-111, says you can recover damages as long as you’re less than 50% at fault. So even if the other driver’s attorney argues you could have braked sooner or reacted faster, you can still win your civil case if the drunk driver bears more than half the blame. Insurance adjusters push the comparative fault argument hard, it’s one of the first things they try.
Insurance companies count on you not knowing this. They hope you’ll see the acquittal or the plea deal and walk away. That assumption is wrong, and it costs injured people real money.
“It’s very important that you end up with the right attorney, not just the one who advertises the most or has the most clicks online. You want an attorney with significant experience, not only handling this type of work but actually trying cases. That doesn’t mean your case will go to trial, but it matters that your attorney has trial experience. Insurance companies know which firms actually take cases to trial, and that affects how your case is handled.”, Jason Jordan, Founding Partner
One more thing people miss. In a civil DUI case, we can sometimes get evidence admitted that the criminal court excluded. A blood alcohol result that got tossed on a technicality in criminal court may still come in during your civil trial. Different rules of evidence apply. That can change everything about the strength of your claim.
If you were hurt by a drunk driver in Greenwood Village and the criminal case didn’t go the way you expected, the criminal result doesn’t control your civil rights.
For a free legal consultation, call (303) 465-8733
A DWAI Plea or Reduced Charge Can Actually Help Your Civil Case
Most people assume a plea deal hurts their civil lawsuit. The opposite is often true. When a drunk driver pleads guilty to DWAI or a lesser charge in Arapahoe County court, that plea creates a public record of admitted wrongdoing, and that admission can be powerful evidence in your civil case.
A DWAI plea means the driver stood before a judge and said, “Yes, I was impaired.” They admitted their ability to drive was affected by alcohol. In a civil lawsuit, you don’t need to prove they were legally drunk. You just need to prove they were negligent. That plea does a lot of the work for you.
Why a Lesser Plea Isn’t a Lesser Admission
We’ve watched this play out dozens of times with clients in Greenwood Village and across the Denver metro area. A prosecutor offers a plea down from DUI to DWAI, the driver takes it, and the driver’s insurance company tries to spin it as “not that serious.” But what a civil jury hears is different. They hear a person who got behind the wheel after drinking and hurt someone. The specific criminal charge matters far less than the fact of impairment, and that fact isn’t going anywhere.
Colorado law draws a clear line between criminal and civil proceedings. Criminal court uses “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Civil court uses “preponderance of the evidence,” a much lower bar. A reduced plea still gives you more than enough to work with on the civil side.
How We Use Criminal Records in Civil Cases
The plea itself can be introduced as evidence of the driver’s conduct that night. Police reports and BAC results from the criminal case become part of your civil discovery. Witness statements gathered by Greenwood Village police or the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office carry over into the civil case too.
But here’s what really changes the math. A DWAI conviction or plea can support a claim for punitive damages under C.R.S. § 13-21-102. Punitive damages punish reckless behavior, and driving while impaired fits that definition squarely. If you can show the driver’s conduct was willful and wanton by clear and convincing evidence, punitive damages can equal the compensatory award, and potentially triple it. That’s a different case entirely than what the insurance company is pricing out.
We secured a $131 million verdict in a case involving a drunk driver and dram shop liability. The criminal outcome in that case didn’t determine the civil result. The evidence of impairment did. Insurance companies count on you not knowing the difference between a criminal plea and civil liability. They want you to think a reduced charge means a reduced case.
It doesn’t.
Consider this scenario. A driver hits you at the intersection of Arapahoe Road and Yosemite Street after leaving a restaurant in the DTC. The DA offers a DWAI plea. The driver accepts. The driver’s insurer calls and says, “It was only a DWAI, not a DUI.” That framing is designed to lower your expectations before you talk to anyone who knows better. Your civil case doesn’t rise or fall on the criminal charge, it rises or falls on whether the driver was negligent, and an admitted impairment is strong proof of exactly that.
If you’ve been hurt by a drunk driver who pled to a lesser charge, don’t let the plea deal discourage you. Talk to an attorney at Jordan Law who understands how to use every piece of the criminal record in your civil case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an acquittal in criminal court mean I can’t sue the driver in civil court?
No. An acquittal only means the prosecutor couldn’t prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your civil lawsuit uses a completely different standard, you only need to show the driver was more likely than not responsible for your injuries. Those are two different legal tests, and one outcome doesn’t control the other.
Can I use evidence from the criminal case in my civil lawsuit?
Yes, and sometimes you can use even more than what the criminal court allowed. Police reports, officer observations, BAC results, and witness statements from the criminal investigation are all fair game in civil discovery. Evidence that was excluded from the criminal trial on a technicality can still come in during your civil case because the rules of evidence are different.
How long do I have to file a civil lawsuit after a drunk driving crash in Arapahoe County?
Colorado gives you three years from the date of the crash under C.R.S. § 13-80-101. If someone died in the crash, the wrongful death statute of limitations is two years under C.R.S. § 13-21-204. Don’t wait for the criminal case to finish before talking to an attorney. That clock runs whether or not criminal proceedings are still ongoing.
What if the driver only pled guilty to careless driving instead of DUI?
A careless driving plea still creates a record of admitted fault. In your civil case, you’re not trying to prove a criminal charge, you’re proving negligence. A driver who admitted to careless driving has already acknowledged they weren’t operating their vehicle safely. That admission supports your civil claim, even if the criminal charge was reduced.
Can I get punitive damages if the driver pled to a lesser charge?
Possibly. Under C.R.S. § 13-21-102, punitive damages are available when you can show the driver’s conduct was willful and wanton by clear and convincing evidence. A DWAI plea or other evidence of impairment can support that argument. If successful, punitive damages can match and potentially triple your compensatory award.
Should I wait to see how the criminal case turns out before filing a civil lawsuit?
No. Waiting is one of the most common mistakes injured people make. The civil statute of limitations keeps running during the criminal case, and if you wait too long, you could lose your right to sue entirely. Talk to an attorney as soon as possible after the crash, even if the criminal case is still pending.