Why Goldmans can sue O.J.Simpson

Matt: How can O.J. Simpson be sued for wrongful death when we legally have to assume he didn’t do it? I can understand such a suit if the criminal court declared him guilty, but he was acquitted. What gives? — FOP, the Net

The law sometimes operates in parallel universes. Civil law and criminal law, f'rinstance. What’s real in one world is not necessarily real in the other. In Criminal Country, the State of California on behalf of you and me charges someone with breaking a law: a desperado steals your car, your accountant embezzles all your snack-machine money, O.J. kills Nicole and Ron. The state must prove its case “beyond a reasonable doubt,” leaving each juror with “an abiding conviction” that the desperado, the accountant, or O.J. is guilty. According to A. Lemon Tort, trusty M.A. mouthpiece, that’s a pretty hefty burden.

Now let’s hop on the space-time bus and transport ourselves to Civil Land. Here, an average Joe like you or me — well, like you — files a lawsuit claiming some suffering or loss as a result of someone else’s negligence or bonehead action: you trip on a turtle, break a leg, sue the pet shop for not corralling the wildlife; the desperado car thief crashes your car, hits his head, sues you for having faulty brakes; Ron and Nicole die, their families suffer psychological/monetary losses, they sue O.J. for causing the “wrongful deaths.” In Civil Land, the Goldmans need prove only “by a preponderance of the evidence” that O.J. did the deed and that the family suffered as a result of it. Pile their evidence next to his evidence, and the biggest pile wins. An easier gig for the plaintiff, especially since the defendant has no Fifth Amendment rights in Civil Land and must take the stand to testify.

O.J. can’t offer the acquittal as evidence in the Goldmans’ suit because the acquittal happened in a parallel universe, Criminal Country. The plaintiffs are different (us, not the Goldmans), the cause of action is different (murder, not wrongful death), and the burden of proof is different (greater in Criminal Country). So he wasn’t acquitted of the same thing, legally, that he’s being sued for by the Goldmans. The fact that the murder of Ron and Nicole instigated both cases doesn’t matter. But this also means, when there’s a verdict in O.J. Redux, he might have done in Ron and Nicole in Civil Land but not in Criminal Country — completely illogical to us untutored masses stuck here in Realityville.