(a) A civil action shall be entitled to preference, if the action is one in which the plaintiff is seeking damages which were alleged to have been caused by the defendant during the commission of a felony offense for which the defendant has been criminally convicted.
§ 37.Preference in action for injuries caused during commission of felony
Title 1. Organization and Jurisdiction · Chapter 1. Courts of Justice in General · Last amended 1983 · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentence§ 37 gives trial preference to a civil plaintiff seeking damages for injuries the defendant caused while committing a felony for which the defendant was criminally convicted, with the court directed to try the case within 120 days.
Full Text of § 37
(b) The court shall endeavor to try the action within 120 days of the grant of preference.
Plain-English Summary
When a criminal conviction has already established what the defendant did, § 37 lets the injured plaintiff move the related civil case for damages to the front of the docket.
The preference applies only after a criminal conviction for the felony that caused the injury — the civil case is not a substitute for that conviction, it follows it. Once the case qualifies, the court is directed to try to bring it to trial within 120 days of the preference being granted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What has to happen before a plaintiff can use § 37?
The defendant must already be convicted of the felony that caused the plaintiff’s injury; the civil damages action then becomes eligible for trial preference.
Is the 120-day trial window under § 37 an absolute deadline?
The statute directs the court to endeavor to try the action within 120 days — a mandate to move quickly, worded more loosely than § 36’s own 120-day requirement.
Amendment History
Added Stats 1982 ch 514 § 1. Amended Stats 1983 ch 938 § 1, effective September 20, 1983.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: felony victim civil trial preferencecrime victim damages preferencepreference for injuries during a felony