The shocking and unprecedented frauds that have been exposed during the current financial crisis have left in their wake a flood of victims seeking to recover their losses to the greatest extent possible. Because many of these frauds have been subject to criminal prosecutions, lawyers representing victims in civil litigation may be lulled into a false sense that there is little to be done until the dust clears from the criminal proceedings. Indeed, civil litigators may be faced with a situation in which their civil action is stayed pending the outcome of criminal proceedings.1
Even as the prosecutors do their job, however, there is important work to be done by lawyers for the fraud victims under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. §3771, et. seq. The CVRA gives victims a seat in the courtroom and, if used effectively, may be an important tool for helping to shape recoveries for those victims.
