Criminal Discovery vs. Civil Discovery

Let me first preface this by saying I am not a lawyer nor am I pretending to be one.

Upon first reading the article penned by the Sacramento Bee's Sam Stanton, I was confused by a statement by Attorney Joe George.  George represents the plaintiff, named as Jane Doe 45, in a Civil case that is currently pending against Robert Adams and Creative Frontiers School.  In Stanton's article, George is quoted as saying,  

"Basically, we do not want to give Adams' attorneys an opportunity to conduct discovery to assist them in their criminal defense.  We will re-file after the conclusion of the criminal trial."

At first glance I kind of had to scratch my head at that comment.  I didn't understand it.  So I did some digging and research.  I found an excellent webpage that really compares and contrasts the two types of cases.  That website can be found by clicking here.

After reading the page, it seems that what George is referring to is the difference between what is allowed by a defense attorney in a civil case and what is allowed in a criminal case.  In a criminal case, the attorney is allowed to conduct very limited discovery.  They may or may not be allowed to know in advance who the prosecution is calling to the witness stand.  This means they cannot look into the backgrounds of witnesses, and so on.  They can provide their own witnesses, they can cross-examine the witnesses brought forth by the prosecution, they can dispute evidence, but what they are allowed to conduct on their own is more limited that in a civil case.

What I can assume Attorney Joe George is saying is that he doesn't want his civil case to affect the District Attorney's criminal case by allowing more discovery than would usually be allowed.

If Mr. Adams is found guilty and Mr. George refiles on behalf of his clients (it appears he has another client not listed on the criminal complaint) at that time, it would not affect any appeals because the defense would know who the prosecution called in the first trial.  If Mr. Adams is found not guilty, Mr. George can still file on behalf of his client(s).  The outcome of the criminal case is not essential to any potential civil cases.

Hopefully this clears this up for you as it did for me.