NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for the hotel maid who accused former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in a New York hotel said on Thursday he planned to file a civil lawsuit soon. Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, did not specify to reporters at a press conference exactly when a civil lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn would be filed. "I said soon. Soon is soon," he told reporters. Diallo made an emotional public appeal at a highly unusual press conference for people to believe her story. The criminal case has teetered for weeks since prosecutors disclosed they had uncovered several discrepancies in Diallo's account of her past.