When Zimmerman is sued in civil court what kind of burden will the person's suing on Martin's behalf (his family?) have to meet/cross? Will they have to simply show that Zimmerman was partially at fault for creating the situation that lead to Martin's death? Will damages be awarded based on percentage of fault?
There's a
really complex ball of possible causes of action (with multiple variations within each cause), and I don't know the specific requirements in Florida law, but
generally speaking the plaintiff in a civil suit would be trying to show that Zimmerman acted in such a way that unjustly caused injury to Martin--at least such a manner that allows legal remedy. As you know, there's no "guilt" or "innocence" in a civil trial, rather the question is whether the defendant is liable for those actions: a legal remedy in a civil case is to make the plaintiff "whole" again, in this case compensating the relatives for a loss of life. As the OJ cases showed, this isn't as strict a standard as criminal liability: civil liability is generally a looser standard where the goal is to establish whether or not the defendant did something in the circumstances for which the law recognizes a remedy. Usually the standard is the "preponderance of evidence" rather than beyond a reasonable doubt and, of course, can allow for negligence that would otherwise not rise to a level of
criminal negligence. Of course, Zimmerman did shoot Martin so this is going to probably see some claims for intentional torts on top of pleading in the alternative for negligent torts. If he's found liable, and it comes to getting compensation, the question is going to be whether he was acting in the capacity of working for an organization with deeper pockets since I doubt he's worth a whole hell of a lot (book deals, etc, are overrated in this day and age, IMO).
I should just go sign up to attend some shitty law school for my own personal amusement.
Hey, McGeorge isn't
that bad (I think you should apply to Davis, I strongly considered going there and it's fairly close).