The Use of Sentencing Findings As a Collateral Estoppel Weapon in Subsequent Civil Litigation‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Should plaintiffs or defendants be permitted to use judicial findings made in the limited setting of a federal criminal sentencing hearing as a weapon in subsequent civil litigation? In the contemporary U.S. justice system, a majority of prosecutions do not actually proceed to trial, but are resolved by a guilty plea. (1) There are numerous reasons that criminal prosecutions result in guilty pleas rather than a trial. (2) The rarity of criminal trials often leaves sentencing as the most important stage of the criminal process. (3) In the federal system, before pronouncing the sentence a judge must make factual findings. These findings may relate to uncharged conduct that could later become the source of civil litigation. In many cases, because of the lack of a trial, most of the underlying facts surrounding the criminal offense are not fleshed out until the sentencing process. But in the limited context of a sentencing hearing many procedural rules that constrain litigants in civil or criminal trials are unavailable.