Can one legally offer to drop a criminal charge if a civil settlement is reached out of court?

John S.: Can one legally offer to drop a criminal charge if a civil settlement is reached out of court?
In this situation, a crime has been committed which is classified as both criminal and civil. The rules of the civil court call for an offer to settle be made before the case comes before the bench (small claims court with Justice of the Peace). In formulating the settlement offer, is it permissible to offer to drop the criminal charges if a civil settlement is reached? Or is the civil case solely under the discretion of the District Attorney to prosecute such that no offer to drop the criminal charges can be made in the civil settlement proposal?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Grandview Investigations
Yes, once it hits the criminal courts, the DA has full discretion as to how it is handled or if it is dropped. Sometimes, I have seen people that wish to drop the charges, but the state continued with prosecution. Thats totally their decision. It probably depends on how serious it is and how many times this fella has priors. Its a whole, big picture here.

Civil and criminal courts are seperate and distinct. You can loose in the criminal and win in civil. Perfect example is OJ Simpson. He lost in criminal but the family won in civil against him.

Answer by Teekno
No, because only the DA can choose whether or not to drop a criminal case. The plaintiff in a civil case won’t have the authority to make dropping the criminal case part of the deal.

Answer by hearingtheword
As crazy as the times are, I would suggest not bringing the civil case until the criminal case goes on the court docket. DA’s are really strange nowadays especially when they see that money is involved. You might just get both cases droped. There is no longer justice here, but Justus is alive!

Answer by truthinessmaybe
You cannot offer to drop criminal charges (or ask the DA to drop the charges) in order to induce a civil settlement. That’s called extortion and it’s a crime and it’s also unethical for a lawyer to go along.

Answer by cyanne2ak
No. Prosecution is solely in the discretion of the State, not the victim.