The criminal side
Here a state or the federal government brings the case after a stop, a search, a warrant, or a longer investigation, and nobody is suing anybody. The questions are about how the evidence was gathered, what is alleged about a person's role, and what their record and status look like. Whether the matter is in state or federal court changes the process substantially, including the pace and the posture on release. The most useful early work is usually locating what has not been preserved yet and identifying what should not be said in the meantime.
The civil side
Here the claim is brought by the person who was harmed, usually over a medication or a medical product. The allegation may be a missing or inadequate warning, a defect, or an injury that appeared during a prescribed course of treatment. These matters run on their own schedules and turn on medical records, prescription history, and the history of the product itself, rather than on anything happening in a criminal court. Some are handled individually and some become part of larger consolidated proceedings. Which one it becomes is not always clear at the outset.
What the first conversation sorts out
The first job is deciding which of the two situations you are actually in, because everything after that diverges. On the criminal side we look at the charging document, custody status, and whether the search or the stop is contestable. On the civil side we look at treatment and pharmacy records, what was reported to a physician or to the manufacturer, and what has already been documented. Both sides are time sensitive for entirely different reasons, and it is worth finding out early which clock is running against you.
