Parallel Civil and Criminal Cases

Last Updated on: 14th November 2025, 03:46 pm

Parallel Civil and Criminal Cases

Welcome to the Spodek Law Group. The goal of this article is to help explain what happens if you get hit with parallel civil and criminal cases. This is a scary time, because you’re now fighting a fight on 2 different battlefields. Each fight has different implications and consequences. Don’t get confused – both have serious consequences. One could result in jail time, but either way you’re looking at huge financial penalties.

You just got hit with criminal charges—the Supreme Court upheld this in United States v. Kordel—and that same morning, a civil lawsuit gets filed, same conduct, same facts, same nightmare, your facing both cases simultaneously. Your thinking: isn’t this double jeopardy? Can they really do this? Yes, they can, and it’s worse than you think because the government is coordinating against you in ways nobody explains. The cases are running at the same time, civil discovery is feeding the criminal investigation, and your being forced to make impossible choices in depositions. What’s actually happening, why both cases proceed simultaneously despite what you’d expect, and the specific decisions you need to make right now—that will determine both outcomes.

The Spodek Law Group is a second-generation criminal defense firm led by Todd Spodek—a prominent attorney who’s handled cases you’ve seen in the news, many, many cases including Anna Delvey (the Netflix series), Ghislaine Maxwell, Alec Baldwin, and hundreds of others—with over 40 years of combined experience handling parallel proceedings where defendants face impossible choices between civil and criminal exposure. We understand the trap your in because we’ve navigated it many, many times.

They’re Coordinating Against You – The DOJ Sharing Mechanism Nobody Explains

You think the criminal case and civil case are separate—they’re not. Department of Justice requires criminal and civil prosecutors coordinate, share discovery, brief each other regularly on what they’re finding, it’s mandatory policy under DOJ Justice Manual § 1-12.000. The Yates Memorandum from 2015 mandates “early and regular communication between civil attorneys and criminal prosecutors,” every document you produce in civil discovery, every answer you give, every admission you make, prosecutors gonna see it, read it, use it. This changes everything about your civil deposition approach—you can’t answer “carefully” hoping it won’t affect criminal case. Coordination happens through formal inter-office communication, civil attorneys must brief criminal prosecutors on discovery obtained. When your deciding whether to testify, produce documents, answer interrogatories, assume criminal prosecutors will have everything within weeks. Civil case isn’t separate from criminal—it’s part of the investigation.

The Catch-22 They Won’t Tell You About

The trap—testify in your civil deposition and you incriminate yourself in the criminal case, or invoke your Fifth Amendment privilege and you lose the civil case by adverse inference, your civil deposition is scheduled in 60 days, your criminal trial is 8 months away, you need to make a choice, both options are bad, both options gonna destroy one case whilst trying to save the other. If you testify in the civil deposition your transcript becomes a prosecution exhibit in the criminal trial, prosecutors will compare every word you say against bank records, emails, witness statements they have that you don’t know about, any inconsistency gets used to impeach you at trial or becomes the basis for additional 18 USC 1001 false statements charges, and they’re building their case based off every single word you said in that deposition room. Martha Stewart’s civil deposition statements was used against her in her criminal case—your testimony in the civil case can destroy your criminal defense regardless of how careful you are, irrespective what you think you can control, due to prosecutors analyzing every single word, comparing it to documents, finding contradictions you didn’t know existed, contradictions that didn’t seem important when you answered the question, contradictions that become the centerpiece of their obstruction case against you later. Try and be careful in deposition, try and answer strategically, you’ll still create impeachment material because prosecutors got documents you haven’t seen, witnesses you don’t know about, bank records showing different than what you remember. The amount of risk you’re taking testifying in civil exceeds what any lawyer can mitigate through preparation, irrespective of how many prep sessions you do, irrespective how confident you feel about your memory.

Invoke your Fifth Amendment privilege and refuse to testify—different problem entirely. Baxter v. Palmigiano says the civil jury gets an instruction that they may draw an adverse inference from your silence, not they “might,” they “may” which means the judge tells them directly, tells the jury they can interpret your refusal to testify as an admission of guilt in the civil case, the plaintiff’s lawyer gets to argue “If he was innocent he’d tell you what happened,” and you’ll lose the civil case, the civil jury’s gonna rule against you due to your not testifying, due to you looked guilty sitting there invoking Fifth to every question whilst the plaintiff’s lawyer is painting you as someone hiding the truth. They won’t explain you got constitutional rights. They won’t explain criminal jeopardy. Jury sees you refusing, and interprets it one way. Guilty.

The math nobody explains, the calculation that keeps defendants up at night trying to figure out which case to sacrifice: if the civil case has $5 million exposure and the criminal case has 10-year exposure the calculation becomes lose $5 million to preserve your freedom or risk 10 years to defend $5 million, this is the impossible choice, this is what your facing right now, today, with depositions scheduled, and criminal charges pending. When criminal exposure exceeds 5 years, defendants sacrifice the civil case 85% of the time—you choose freedom over money because you can’t spend money in prison regardless of how much you have, irrespective of whether you think you can win both cases, irrespective what your civil lawyer is telling you about the strength of your defense. Your criminal defense attorney says “Don’t testify, invoke Fifth in civil,” your civil attorney says “You’ll lose by default, adverse inference kills you, testify,” your caught in middle with conflicting advice from lawyers who aren’t coordinating, who are focused on their case, who don’t understand the interplay, and prosecutors exploit the inconsistency—they’re arguing “If innocent why different positions?” and using your legal strategy against you in the criminal case, making it evidence of consciousness of guilt, making your attempt to protect yourself into proof you knew you were guilty. Walking into that deposition, they already decided how to use it against you. Testify or invoke. Both options bad. Both options play into their strategy. This is the trap. This is what parallel proceedings designed to do.

Civil Cases Won’t Wait

Most people assume criminal case happens first, it’s more serious it must come first—your wrong. Civil cases proceed faster, much faster. From filing to trial civil takes 12-18 months, criminal takes 2-3 years. Result: you’ll face civil discovery deadlines, deposition, potentially trial before criminal case even starts, civil forces the Catch-22 choice months before you’re ready.

You might think “I’ll request a stay until criminal finishes,” stay motions succeed approximately 30% of time in SDNY where most parallel proceedings happen. Courts have discretion under United States v. LaSalle Bank Corp., stays aren’t automatic. If your gonna request stay file immediately after charges, not six months later after depositions happened, judges reason if plaintiff already conducted discovery the damage is done, stay accomplishes nothing. Timeline pressure: civil deposition scheduled six months before criminal trial, plaintiff moves for summary judgment four months before arguing your Fifth Amendment invocation is evidence you got no defense, both cases moving simultaneously civil moving faster forcing decisions affecting criminal, you can’t use time as strategy.

When Settlement Helps and When It Destroys Your Defense

Your thinking “If I settle civil I can focus on criminal defense” or “Settling looks like admission”—both true depending when you settle. Settle before charges filed you demonstrate restitution, that’s mitigating factor at sentencing under Federal Sentencing Guidelines § 3E1.1 acceptance of responsibility, your showing you made victims whole. Settling early can prevent charges entirely if settlement includes full restitution, shows good faith.

Settle after charges filed but before trial, prosecutors use settlement as evidence of guilt, they argue “Defendant’s trying to make it right due to knowing he’s guilty,” settlement becomes their exhibit, civil settlement requiring admission creates statements prosecutors introduce against you. Post-conviction pre-sentencing, different calculation entirely. Settlement with restitution major mitigating factor, judges give credit for making victims whole. Structure it right though: restitution without admission, settlement not creating additional statements, timing showing genuine remorse.

Early Warning Signs You’re Facing Parallel Proceedings

How do you know parallel proceedings starting? Government doesn’t send a letter saying “We’re coordinating against you,” you gotta recognize the signs yourself. Warning signs: civil investigators and criminal agents contact you within weeks about same conduct—that’s coordination not coincidence. Civil lawsuit filed close to target letter timing—prosecutors using civil case in order to build criminal case. Questions in civil discovery eerily similar to FBI questions—they’re sharing notes. Recognizing these signs early, you can prepare defense before both cases advance too far, make informed decisions about settlement timing and Fifth Amendment while you still got options, our attorneys spot these patterns immediately because we’ve seen them hundreds of times. Wait too long the trap closes.

When Separate Attorneys Destroy Both Cases

You hired criminal defense attorney smart move, now hiring separate civil attorney because civil needs specialists, you assume they’ll coordinate, they often don’t. Criminal attorney says “Don’t testify, invoke Fifth in civil,” civil attorney says “You’ll lose by default, adverse inference kills you, testify,” your caught in middle with conflicting advice, prosecutors exploit the inconsistency, argue “If innocent why different positions?” When criminal and civil lawyers aren’t coordinating your building inconsistent defenses—criminal case “I’m innocent I invoke Fifth,” civil case “Let me explain what happened.” Prosecutors compare positions, highlight contradictions, use as evidence of guilt. Coordination isn’t optional it’s essential, one defense strategy across both cases, one team coordinating criminal and civil, one lawyer understanding your civil deposition affects criminal trial, settlement timing matters, discovery feeds the other case. Understanding strategic interplay, navigating Catch-22 in SDNY, EDNY, CDCA where most white-collar parallel proceedings happen—one coordinated defense, that’s what keeps defendants from destroying one case whilst trying to defend the other.

Your facing parallel civil and criminal, fighting on two fronts, government coordinating, your lawyers must coordinate. Don’t assume civil waits, it won’t. Don’t think you can answer discovery “carefully,” you can’t. Don’t make settlement decisions without understanding timing, that’s how defendants destroy criminal defense. We’re available 24/7, decisions can’t wait, deposition might be tomorrow, arraignment next week, every decision in one affects the other. Freedom on line in criminal, financial future on line in civil, cases connected, prosecutors coordinating, you need strategy addressing both simultaneously.

Your next decision affects criminal exposure. Before answering interrogatory, before deposition, before settlement prosecutors will use against you, talk to someone coordinating both defenses. We’re here 24/7, handled cases more complex in SDNY and EDNY where parallels most aggressive, understand what your up against. Call now before civil destroys criminal defense.