When the O.J. Simpson trial finally ends, the defendant's days in court won't necessarily be over - regardless of the murder case's outcome.
Lawsuits filed by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman could go on for months, even years.The Goldman lawsuit accuses the former football star of killing the 25-year-old waiter with "vicious and outrageous savagery," while the Brown suit alleges that Simpson "brutally and with malice aforethought stalked, attacked and repeatedly stabbed and beat" his 35-year-old ex-wife.
While the lawsuits are essentially on hold until the trial and any retrials are over, they can ultimately proceed whether Simpson is found not guilty or guilty. And unlike in the trial, Simpson could be forced to testify in the civil cases - possibly twice if called in each case.
Last week, Nicole Simpson's father, Louis Brown, filed a "survival action" lawsuit on the one-year anniversary of the slayings and the final day under the statute of limitations. Goldman's father, Fred, and sister, Kim, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on May 4 seeking unspecified damages and funeral expenses.
A wrongful death lawsuit, the more common of the two, is filed by heirs of a victim for loss of support, love and guidance. A survival action is filed in the name of the deceased or the victim's estate, legal experts said.
"The claim of survival is for punitive damages incurred by the victim between the date of the injury and the date of death," said lawyer Larry Feldman. "If someone is injured and lives a day, they'll have medical bills, ambulance bills - those economical losses survive the death."
In Nicole Simpson's case, her survival time was brief, "but in those few moments she would have had the right to seek punitive damages based on the assault and battery had she survived," said attorney John Quinlan Kelly, who filed the Brown lawsuit.
As executor of Nicole Simpson's estate, Brown opted to proceed with the case after recent testimony indicated that she probably faced her killer for several moments before her death, Kelly said.
The estate's only beneficiaries are her two young children with Simpson, Sydney, 8, and Justin, 5.
The lawsuits could be combined by the plaintiffs, but that's unlikely because of the significant differences between the suits, said Professor Robert Pugsley of the Southwestern University School of Law.
As a result, two back-to-back civil cases could take months or even years before they are resolved, Pugsley said. "Civil litigation can go on forever in this town."
Civil actions against a murder defendant aren't all that common, legal experts said.
"Typically, most people who commit crimes are not with significant funds," Feldman said, "and there's no insurance for murder."
If Simpson is found guilty of murder, the plaintiffs would enter that judgment as "res judicata," meaning it's already been decided, and thus Simpson would probably opt to settle the suits out of court, Pugsley said.
If Simpson is found not guilty, the suits could go forward in civil court, where the burden of proof is less rigid, although the criminal acquittal would certainly be used as powerful evidence by the defense.
In the end, the suits may not recoup a dime. Once the murder trial is over and Simpson's legal dream team is paid, there might not be any money left.
"All of the money that Simpson's been generating since he's been in jail is being put into an involuntary trust," Pugsley said. "The first obligation is to lawyers, and the second is families of the victims in case of any civil judgments."