The Criminal Case Is Not Your Only Possible Path to Accountability
If you or someone you love has been harmed by a violent crime, it may feel as though everything depends on decisions made by law enforcement, prosecutors, or the criminal court.
The state decides whether to file charges, which charges to pursue, whether to offer a plea agreement, and how the prosecution moves forward. Those decisions may be important, but they do not necessarily determine whether you have a separate civil claim.
A civil claim may provide another way to seek accountability and compensation for the harm caused. Depending on the circumstances, the claim may be brought against the person who committed the act, a property owner or business whose negligence contributed to the incident, or another responsible party.
A civil claim may sometimes proceed even when:
- No arrest was made
- Criminal charges were never filed
- Charges were dismissed
- The accused person was acquitted
- The criminal case remains pending
- The criminal outcome did not address the victim’s financial and personal losses
When a criminal investigation or prosecution remains pending, the civil claim may require careful coordination. Testimony, discovery, access to evidence, and the timing of the civil case can be affected by the related criminal matter.
At Herrera PLLC, Jonathan Herrera represents crime victims and their families in Houston and throughout Texas who are evaluating their civil options after a serious injury or death.
These cases require legal skill, discretion, and respect for what the client has already experienced. Jonathan maintains a selective caseload so that clients work directly with him rather than being repeatedly passed among attorneys, assistants, and unfamiliar staff members.
Personal Commitment. Proven Experience.
Learn more about Jonathan Herrera’s insurance and legal background.
What Is the Difference Between a Criminal Case and a Civil Claim?
A criminal case is brought by the government. Its primary purpose is to determine whether the accused committed a crime and, if so, what punishment should be imposed.
A civil claim is brought by the injured person or, in a fatal case, by qualifying family members or the estate. Its purpose is generally to hold responsible parties financially accountable for the losses caused by their conduct.
The two cases may arise from the same incident, but they involve different parties, procedures, purposes, and standards of proof.
A criminal conviction generally requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In an ordinary civil case, the claimant generally must prove the required elements by a preponderance of the evidence. This means showing that the claim is more likely true than not true based on the credible evidence.
Because the standards are different, the absence of a criminal conviction does not automatically prevent a civil claim.
An acquittal means that the prosecution did not prove the criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt. It does not necessarily establish that no wrongful conduct occurred or that no person or business may be held responsible under civil law.
A civil claim may also address losses that a criminal prosecution does not fully resolve, including medical expenses, lost earnings, physical pain, mental anguish, impairment, and the long-term effects of the incident.
Who May Be Held Responsible in a Civil Claim?
The person who committed the violent act may be directly responsible for the resulting injuries.
However, civil responsibility is not always limited to the perpetrator. Depending on the facts, another person or business may have negligently created, ignored, or failed to address a foreseeable risk.
Potentially responsible parties may include:
- An apartment complex or landlord
- A hotel or motel
- A shopping center or retail business
- A bar, nightclub, restaurant, or entertainment venue
- A parking-lot or parking-garage operator
- An employer
- A security company
- A property-management company
- An event organizer
- Another person or business whose conduct contributed to the harm
The occurrence of a violent crime does not automatically make a property owner, employer, or business responsible.
A civil investigation must determine who possessed or controlled the relevant property, operation, or security measure. It must also examine what that party knew or should have known, whether a legal duty existed, whether reasonable precautions were required, and whether the alleged failure caused or contributed to the injury.
When May a Property Owner Be Responsible for Inadequate Security?
Claims against property owners and businesses are sometimes described as negligent-security or inadequate-security cases.
These claims may arise after an attack at a location such as:
- An apartment complex
- A hotel
- A parking lot or garage
- A shopping center
- A bar or nightclub
- A restaurant
- A workplace
- An entertainment venue
- Another commercial or residential property
A property owner is not automatically liable simply because a crime occurred on the premises.
Texas negligent-security cases frequently depend on whether the criminal conduct was sufficiently foreseeable and whether reasonable precautions were required under the circumstances.
The investigation may consider prior criminal activity and factors such as:
- How close the earlier incidents occurred to the property
- How recently they happened
- How frequently similar problems occurred
- How similar the prior incidents were
- Whether the responsible party knew or should have known about them
Potential security issues may include:
- Broken or inadequate locks
- Gates that remained open or inoperable
- Poor lighting in parking areas, hallways, or common spaces
- Cameras or monitoring systems that were not operating when their operation may have affected prevention, intervention, or the preservation of evidence
- Repeated complaints about trespassers, threats, or criminal activity
- Failure to respond to known security problems
- Inadequate staffing for a crowded venue
- Failure to follow an existing security plan
- Security personnel who were absent, poorly trained, or inadequately supervised
The existence of any one condition does not automatically prove liability. The evidence must connect the alleged failure to a foreseeable risk and to the incident that caused the harm.
What Evidence May Be Important?
Evidence can disappear quickly after a violent incident.
Surveillance recordings may be overwritten. Locks, gates, lights, or cameras may be repaired. Access records may be deleted. Employees may leave their jobs, witnesses may become harder to locate, and the physical condition of the property may change.
Depending on the case, relevant evidence may include:
- Surveillance footage
- Photographs or videos of the property
- Police reports and emergency-call records
- Prior incident reports
- Records of earlier crimes or disturbances
- Tenant, guest, employee, or customer complaints
- Maintenance requests
- Emails or messages reporting unsafe conditions
- Gate, key-card, or access-control records
- Security contracts and staffing records
- Employee schedules and training policies
- Lighting and camera-maintenance records
- Witness statements
- Medical and counseling records
- Communications with insurers, property managers, law enforcement, or victim-service organizations
The investigation may also require identifying prior incidents that were sufficiently similar, recent, frequent, or close to the property to place the responsible party on notice of a relevant danger.
The victim is not expected to collect every document personally. Early legal review can help identify what evidence may exist and what steps may be available to request or preserve it.
Can an Employer Be Responsible for an Employee’s Conduct?
An employer may sometimes be investigated when an employee causes serious harm.
Potential claims may involve negligent hiring, retention, training, supervision, or assignment. Relevant questions may include:
- What did the employer know about the employee?
- What should a reasonable employment or background review have revealed?
- Were there previous complaints, threats, or warning signs?
- Did the employer ignore known misconduct?
- Was the employee placed in a position that created an unreasonable risk?
- Did inadequate training or supervision contribute to the incident?
An employer is not automatically responsible for every criminal act committed by an employee.
Depending on the circumstances, the investigation may consider the employer’s own negligence as well as whether the employee’s conduct was sufficiently connected to the work to support another form of employer liability.
The employee’s duties, the employer’s prior knowledge, the relationship between the conduct and the job, and the cause of the injury must all be evaluated.
Can a Bar, Club, or Venue Be Held Responsible?
Bars, nightclubs, concert venues, event spaces, and similar businesses often serve large crowds and operate late into the evening.
A claim may deserve investigation when a venue allegedly ignored a known or foreseeable danger, failed to respond to repeated violent incidents, did not follow its own security procedures, or provided inadequate staffing for the circumstances.
Relevant questions may include:
- Were there prior fights, assaults, shootings, or threats?
- Did staff know that a particular person posed a danger?
- Were entry procedures or weapons screening promised but not followed?
- Were security personnel properly positioned, trained, and supervised?
- Did employees respond reasonably once a disturbance began?
- Were emergency procedures followed?
If alcohol service contributed to the incident, the investigation may also consider Texas alcohol-provider law. That analysis generally requires evidence that it was apparent to the provider, at the time of service, that the customer was obviously intoxicated to the point of presenting a clear danger to themselves and others, and that the intoxication caused the resulting harm.
Different legal theories may apply depending on whether the case involves negligent security, employee conduct, alcohol service, or another contributing cause.
The existence of a crime alone does not establish that the venue was negligent.
Why Can a Civil Claim Continue Without a Criminal Conviction?
A prosecutor may decide not to file or continue criminal charges for reasons that do not necessarily resolve the civil issues.
Those reasons may involve:
- The high criminal burden of proof
- Witness availability
- Admissibility concerns
- Conflicting evidence
- Office priorities
- The accused person’s constitutional rights
- Other issues affecting the criminal prosecution
A civil case may also involve defendants who were never accused of committing a crime.
For example, the criminal prosecution may focus on whether one person committed an assault. A civil investigation may separately examine whether a landlord, hotel, venue, employer, or security contractor knew about a recurring danger and failed to take reasonable precautions.
A civil claim is not an appeal of the criminal case. It is a separate proceeding based on civil duties, causation, damages, and the applicable burden of proof.
What Compensation May Be Available?
The compensation available depends on the injuries, responsible parties, evidence, available insurance or assets, and other case-specific circumstances.
A civil claim may seek compensation for qualifying losses such as:
- Past and future medical expenses, including qualifying counseling and therapy
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Physical pain
- Mental anguish
- Physical impairment
- Disfigurement
- Property damage
- Other legally recoverable losses
No particular category of compensation is automatic. The claimed losses must be supported by the evidence and legally attributable to the responsible party’s conduct.
What If the Crime Caused a Death?
When an incident causes a death, different civil claims may be available.
The surviving spouse, children, or parents may have a wrongful-death claim for qualifying losses they personally experienced because of the death.
The estate may have a separate survival claim for qualifying losses the deceased person experienced between the injury and death.
The available compensation depends on the particular claim, the relationship of the claimant to the deceased person, the evidence, and who incurred the loss.
Are Exemplary Damages Available?
Exemplary damages, sometimes called punitive damages, may be available in certain qualifying cases.
They are not automatic simply because the underlying conduct involved a crime.
Texas generally requires clear and convincing evidence of fraud, malice, or gross negligence before exemplary damages may be awarded. Additional rules may apply when a claim seeks to impose exemplary damages on a business for another person’s conduct.
Whether exemplary damages should be pursued depends on the legal claim, the defendant’s conduct, and the available evidence.
What Is the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Program?
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Program may assist eligible victims and families with certain crime-related expenses.
The program is administered through the Office of the Attorney General and may provide qualifying assistance for costs such as:
- Medical treatment
- Counseling
- Lost wages
- Funeral expenses
- Other eligible crime-related losses
Eligibility requirements, reporting obligations, benefit limits, and documentation rules apply.
The program generally acts as a payer of last resort, which means that other available payment sources may need to be considered first.
A civil claim and a Crime Victims’ Compensation application are separate processes. Pursuing one does not necessarily prevent the victim from exploring the other.
However, payments must be coordinated. When the program has paid benefits, the claimant and the claimant’s attorney may have specific notice, documentation, and reimbursement obligations before a related lawsuit is resolved or settlement funds are distributed.
If a settlement, judgment, restitution payment, or insurance benefit later pays the same expense, the Office of the Attorney General may seek reimbursement for overlapping benefits.
The purpose of coordination is to avoid duplicate payment for the same expense, not to prevent a victim from pursuing all available sources of assistance.
What Is the Difference Between Restitution and Civil Compensation?
A criminal court may order restitution as part of a defendant’s sentence.
Restitution can be important, but it is not necessarily the same as a complete civil recovery. It may depend on the criminal charges, sentencing decision, categories of loss recognised by the court, and the defendant’s ability to pay.
A civil claim may address additional losses and may involve defendants who were not part of the criminal prosecution.
Amounts actually received through restitution may need to be credited or coordinated with an overlapping civil recovery. Restitution, Crime Victims’ Compensation benefits, insurance payments, and civil compensation should be evaluated together.
How Long Do Crime Victims Have to File a Civil Claim in Texas?
Texas generally applies a two-year filing period to many personal-injury claims, but the correct deadline depends on the claim, defendant, accrual date, and any legally recognised exceptions.
Different or longer deadlines may apply to certain claims involving sexual assault, trafficking, abuse, injuries to minors, or other circumstances addressed by Texas law.
A deadline that applies to one claim or defendant may not apply to every related claim arising from the same incident. For example, a direct claim against a perpetrator and a negligent-security claim against a business may be governed by different rules.
Claims involving a governmental entity may also present special immunity issues and notice requirements that arise much earlier than the ordinary lawsuit deadline.
Prompt review matters even when a longer filing period may apply. Surveillance footage, access records, maintenance documents, employee information, witness memories, and physical conditions at the property may change or disappear well before the filing deadline expires.
Why Work With Herrera PLLC?
Civil claims for crime victims require careful investigation, but they also require sensitivity.
You should not be treated as a file number or required to repeat painful details to a new person every time you contact the firm.
Jonathan Herrera maintains a manageable caseload so that he can work directly with each client. Your case will not be transferred among numerous attorneys or managed primarily by a paralegal who does not know you or the circumstances of your claim.
Before representing injured people, Jonathan spent more than a decade as a licensed insurance adjuster handling high-exposure property and casualty claims. He founded and operated JH Claims LLC, a multi-state adjusting company, and later practiced insurance defense.
That experience helps him understand how businesses, property owners, insurers, and defense attorneys may evaluate and dispute these cases.
They may argue that:
- The crime was unforeseeable
- Existing security measures were reasonable
- Additional precautions would not have prevented the incident
- The perpetrator alone caused the injury
- The business had no notice of prior danger
- The requested treatment or counseling was unrelated or unnecessary
- The victim’s losses are overstated
Jonathan uses his insurance-side experience to anticipate those arguments and identify the evidence needed to address them.
Learn more about Herrera PLLC’s representation of people facing serious and lasting harm on the Serious Injuries page.
What Can You Expect When You Contact Herrera PLLC?
The initial conversation is an opportunity to understand what happened, identify possible civil claims, and discuss what information may be important.
You are not required to make an immediate decision about filing a lawsuit.
The review may consider:
- Where and how the incident occurred
- Whether the perpetrator is known
- The status of any criminal investigation or prosecution
- Whether a property owner, employer, venue, or other party may be involved
- Prior warnings or similar incidents
- Available surveillance footage and records
- Medical care and counseling needs
- Lost income and other financial effects
- Crime Victims’ Compensation and restitution
- Applicable deadlines
The goal is to gather the information needed to evaluate the claim without requiring you to repeat what happened more often than the case reasonably requires.
Learn more about the direct and personal representation clients receive from Herrera PLLC.
Speak With a Houston Civil Claims Lawyer for Crime Victims
A criminal prosecution is not the only possible path to accountability.
A separate civil claim may help address medical bills, lost earnings, pain, mental anguish, counseling expenses, and the other ways a violent crime has disrupted your life.
Herrera PLLC offers free, confidential consultations with no obligation. Serious-injury and wrongful-death matters are handled on a contingency-fee basis, meaning no attorney’s fees are owed unless compensation is recovered.
Subject to the representation agreement, Herrera PLLC advances case-related expenses and is reimbursed only if compensation is recovered.
Call 832-891-3210 or email jherrera@jh-lawpllc.com to speak directly and confidentially with Jonathan Herrera about your possible civil claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Possibly. A civil claim may proceed without an arrest, criminal charge, or conviction. An acquittal means that the criminal charge was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt and does not automatically determine whether the civil burden of proof can be met.
Possibly, but liability is not automatic. The investigation may consider prior similar incidents, complaints, locks, gates, lighting, access controls, security practices, property control, foreseeability, and whether an alleged failure contributed to the attack.
A direct claim against the perpetrator may be possible. Its practical value can depend on the evidence, available assets, insurance exclusions, collectability, and whether another responsible party is involved.
Possibly. A property owner, employer, venue, security contractor, or another business may be responsible if its own negligence contributed to a foreseeable incident. The crime itself does not automatically establish the business’s liability.
Not necessarily. The program and a civil claim are separate, but payments must be coordinated. The program may seek reimbursement when another source later pays the same expense.
A case does not necessarily depend on video. Other evidence may include witness statements, police records, prior incident reports, access logs, complaints, maintenance requests, photographs, employee records, and security documents.
As soon as you feel able. Legal deadlines may apply, and evidence such as surveillance footage, access records, property conditions, and witness information can disappear long before the lawsuit deadline.
Some discussion of the incident is necessary to evaluate and pursue a claim. Herrera PLLC aims to gather that information carefully and avoid requiring clients to repeat painful details more often than reasonably necessary.
Yes. Jonathan Herrera personally handles each matter and communicates directly with clients rather than transferring primary responsibility among numerous attorneys and paralegals.