Sacramento Civil Rights Attorney Mistreated by police? You may have a case.

Why I take civil rights cases

In my criminal defense work, I kept seeing clients’ rights violated, often with little that could be done about it outside the criminal case.

Then a man came to me for a consultation. He had been hurt during an arrest and then charged with resisting arrest. I took his criminal case pro bono. Later, at his request, I filed my first federal civil rights case for him.

Cover charges

I see it in criminal cases all the time. Police mistreat someone, they know it, and then they arrest that person for something like resisting arrest to cover their own misconduct. These are often called cover charges, and they’re shameful.

In a criminal case, police misconduct can usually only be used in your defense in that case. A civil rights case lets me do more: try to hold the officers and their agency responsible, and seek justice for you beyond getting you out of trouble.

The cases I take

I focus on two kinds of civil rights cases.

Excessive force

Police can’t use more force than is reasonable in the situation, even when they have a lawful reason to arrest you. I take cases where someone was hurt during an arrest, and I’m most interested when the arrest was wrong to begin with, with or without cover charges.

What I need to see: a real injury that was documented and treated by a doctor or hospital. Hurt pride, or a rights violation with no injury, usually isn’t enough for a case I can take on.

The strongest cases often come through a criminal case. When I’m defending you on the criminal charge, I usually get the body camera video as part of the evidence, and it can show the force. In a civil case alone, that video can be hard and expensive to get, often not until well after a lawsuit is filed. If you already have video, that helps too.

Wrongful imprisonment

This means being held in jail longer than you should have been: kept too long before you were brought to court, kept after you should have been released, or arrested on a warrant that shouldn’t have been active. Here the extra time in custody is the harm, so you don’t need a physical injury.

Both kinds of cases often rest on federal civil rights law (42 U.S.C. § 1983) and California’s Bane Act (Civil Code section 52.1).

Charged after police hurt you? I handle both cases.

If police hurt you and you were then charged, your two cases are tied together. The criminal case usually comes first, and how it ends can affect the civil case. Some convictions, including some plea deals, can limit or block a civil rights claim about the same events. What you say in the criminal case can also be used later. Talk to me before you take any deal.

I handle criminal cases too, so I plan the criminal case with the civil case in mind. I also take criminal cases outside Sacramento County when there’s a civil rights side to them. For the criminal case, I charge a flat fee, so you know the cost before you hire me. See my fees.

Police want to talk to you about it? Call me before you say anything. What to do before charges are filed

What it costs

I take civil rights cases on a contingency fee: I’m paid a share of any recovery. The percentage depends on the case and is set in writing at the start.

I advance the costs of the case as it goes, like court fees, depositions and experts. If there’s no recovery, you owe me nothing, not for my time and not for those costs. If there is a recovery, the written fee agreement spells out how my fee and those costs are paid from it.

How long it takes

Unless a case settles very early, which isn’t typical, a civil rights case usually takes at least a year, and often two or more. For state-law claims, a written claim to the government agency comes first. A lawsuit generally has to wait until the agency rejects the claim or its time to act runs out, usually 45 days. Once a lawsuit is filed, a trial date is often more than a year away, even though most cases never go to trial.

That’s why I’m selective. If I take your case, I’ll be in it with you for a long time, putting in a lot of my own time and money. It isn’t quick, and I’ll be honest with you about that from the start.

Deadlines are short. Call early.

• For a state-law claim against a city, county or other public agency, you generally have to file a written claim with the agency within six months.
• For a federal civil rights claim in California, the deadline to file a lawsuit is generally two years.

The clock often starts on the day it happened. The six-month claim deadline doesn’t wait for your criminal case to end, and other deadlines may not either. Missing a deadline can end a case before it starts. Call me early, even if you aren’t sure you have a case.

What to do now

• Get medical care, and keep your medical records and bills.
• Take photos of your injuries now, and again over the next few days as bruises change.
• Write down what happened while you remember it: the time, the place, officer names or badge numbers, and car numbers. Keep those notes for your lawyer, and don’t share them with anyone else.
• Get the names and phone numbers of anyone who saw it. Save any video, yours or theirs.
• Keep your paperwork: citations, property receipts and release papers.
• Don’t talk about what did or didn’t happen with police, investigators or anyone else, and don’t post about it online.

Where I take these cases

I take civil rights cases from Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter, Yuba, Amador and Nevada counties, and the other counties served by the federal court in Sacramento (the Eastern District of California, at the Robert T. Matsui United States Courthouse). I’m admitted to practice in that court.

When you hire me, you get me. I review the evidence, do the research and writing, and go to court myself.

Questions