OldZephyr Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 Innocent until proven guilty only applies in the criminal court system. In the civil court system you are basically guilty until proven innocent. Once a lawsuit has been filed the defendant must prove their innocents, while the plaintiff has a much lower standard called a "Preponderance of evidence" instead of "Beyond a reasonable doubt". No, a defendant is not guilty until proven innocent in a civil case. The plaintiff cannot rest on the allegations in the complaint that starts the lawsuit. Unless the defendant doesn't bother to respond to the complaint (thereby letting the plaintiff get a default judgment), the plaintiff has to prove by affirmative evidence that it is more likely than not that they are correct. And that applies to each and every element of a claim (e.g if you claim that someone misrepresented something to you, you're not going to be entitled to any damages unless you can prove it is more likely than not that you relied on the misrepresentation). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 (edited) Companies can only subject to civil actions. Corporate entities (companies, partnerships, etc.) most certainly can be tried criminally: Ford was charged with criminal negligence in the Pinto matter, although the criminal charges were eventually dropped http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1971-1980-ford-pinto12.htm More famously, Arthur Andersen was charged with and convicted of obstruction of justice, which effectively ruined the company: http://money.cnn.com/2002/06/13/news/andersen_verdict/ There is also talk of filing criminal charges against BP: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/any_criminal_charges_likely_to.html The precedent? Criminal charges filed against Exxon after the Valdez spill: http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/valdez/02.htm Edited November 3, 2010 by RichardJensen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 More famously, Arthur Andersen was charged with and convicted of obstruction of justice, which effectively ruined the company: ::looks towards a certain Texas-based BONer:: :shades: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomServo92 Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 (edited) ::looks towards a certain Texas-based BONer:: :shades: Who would that be? Oh yeah....THAT Arthur Anderson.... Edited November 3, 2010 by TomServo92 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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