criminal-law constitutional-law civil-legal-system self-incrimination deposition
Can a person be compelled to testify against themself in a civil trial?
<p>I read that a key piece of evidence against Bill Cosby in his recent criminal trial was <a href="http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/04/26/bill-cosby-found-guilty-sex-assault-retrial/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">testimony he gave in a deposition in response to a civil suit filed against him by one of his accusers</a>. In the deposition, he stated that he had given quaaludes to women.</p>

<p>So, if he was compelled to give this testimony in the civil trial, then it would appear to be an end run around the constitutional protections against self incrimination. Either that or was he just foolish to voluntarily give the deposition. Which was it?</p>

<p>The Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination applies only in criminal trials, but it permits a witness to refuse to answer a question in either criminal or civil cases, including in a deposition.</p>

<p>If he had committed crimes or thought that his answers might have incriminated him, he should have declined to answer. I'm not terribly familiar with this case, but it occurs to me that a lot of the allegations against Cosby go pretty far back; it could be that he was talking about something so far back that he wasn't exposed to any criminal liability. In a case like that, it may even be that a judge had already ordered him to answer the question.</p>

<p>Assuming that he voluntarily answered the question, he has waived his right against self-incrimination and the testimony is generally admissible.</p>
