There’s no conviction because this isn’t a criminal trial. This is a civil trial. Civil trials have a much lower standard.
Criminal trials are “beyond a reasonable doubt” which basically means “if a reasonable person could doubt the person’s guilt, then they aren’t guilty.” If there’s a way for a person to go “well, maybe they didn’t” then they’re supposed to be found innocent.
But civil trials are only “a preponderance of evidence” which is basically just 51%. If you can prove that the person probably wronged you, then you win the civil trial. Furthermore, you can’t use the fifth amendment as a defense, because the fifth amendment only protects against criminal charges.
Technically, you could plead the fifth if testifying required you to self-incriminate. But that means you’re unable to defend yourself in the civil trial because you’re trying to avoid admitting to a crime. And civil courts don’t look kindly upon that, because if defending yourself from an accusation requires an admission of guilt, then you’ll obviously lose the civil trial (which has a much lower standard for ruling against the defendant.) It’s basically someone going “that person wronged me!” And when the courts ask the other person to defend themselves, that person clams up and refuses to respond. In short, the defendant is refusing to defend themselves.
There’s no conviction because this isn’t a criminal trial. This is a civil trial. Civil trials have a much lower standard.
Criminal trials are “beyond a reasonable doubt” which basically means “if a reasonable person could doubt the person’s guilt, then they aren’t guilty.” If there’s a way for a person to go “well, maybe they didn’t” then they’re supposed to be found innocent.
But civil trials are only “a preponderance of evidence” which is basically just 51%. If you can prove that the person probably wronged you, then you win the civil trial. Furthermore, you can’t use the fifth amendment as a defense, because the fifth amendment only protects against criminal charges.
Technically, you could plead the fifth if testifying required you to self-incriminate. But that means you’re unable to defend yourself in the civil trial because you’re trying to avoid admitting to a crime. And civil courts don’t look kindly upon that, because if defending yourself from an accusation requires an admission of guilt, then you’ll obviously lose the civil trial (which has a much lower standard for ruling against the defendant.) It’s basically someone going “that person wronged me!” And when the courts ask the other person to defend themselves, that person clams up and refuses to respond. In short, the defendant is refusing to defend themselves.