can i take a guilty verdict to small claims?

[Berlin]

i rside in new york, last year my ex broke my foot and was arrested on assault charges. he took the case to trail and was found not guilty. i would like to know if i have a case for small claims court to get my doctor bills paid by him. i've been through quite a bit over this whole thing and really don't want to put myself through more if it's just going to end up in his favor again.
i'm running out of time, next week will be a year since the incident. i never really did care about a guilty verdict in the first place i was just more concerned about the doctor bills. now i'm afraid that i might lose a cival case against him because of the fact that he was found not guilty criminaly. please if you have any advice on which direction i should follow it would be greatly appricatied. time is running out for me.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

i rside in new york, last year my ex broke my foot and was arrested on assault charges. he took the case to trail and was found not guilty. i would like to know if i have a case for small claims court to get my doctor bills paid by him. i've been through quite a bit over this whole thing and really don't want to put myself through more if it's just going to end up in his favor again.
i'm running out of time, next week will be a year since the incident. i never really did care about a guilty verdict in the first place i was just more concerned about the doctor bills. now i'm afraid that i might lose a cival case against him because of the fact that he was found not guilty criminaly. please if you have any advice on which direction i should follow it would be greatly appricatied. time is running out for me.

My response:

Read this:
http://www.consumer.state.ny.us/clahm/smallclaims.htm

New York has a 3 year Statute of Limitations on injury claims - - so, you're okay in that regard.

In Criminal court, the threshhold of proof of guilt is MUCH higher than in Civil Court. In the former court, it's "Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty". In other words, no question about it, the defendant did it. In the latter court, the threshhold of liability is much lower (a "preponderance of the evidence), where the evidence against the defendant has the greater probability of truth; i.e., you, as the Plaintiff, only need to "tip the scales" in your favor by 51 to 49 percent in your favor. Therefore, in Civil court, if you can tip the scales by just a little bit, you'll win your case.

Try it. It's easy to file and have your case heard in a Small Claims court. Think of it as Judge Judy without the steroids.

IAAL

 

[JETX]

We all remember the OJ trial....
Found NOT GUILTY (still hurts to say that) in the criminal trial.
Found GUILTY (smile!!) in the civil trial.