Civil Law Versus Criminal Law, What is The Difference?

Through the years, we’ve learned a lot about the law by watching TV. When “The Peoples Court” became a hit TV show, we watched Judge Wapner preside over civil trials and we quickly absorbed legal lingo like “litigant” and differentiated between the words “Plaintiff” and “Defendant”. As to criminal law, just imagine how many youngsters watched the infamous criminal defense attorney Perry Mason back in the day and decided they’d be a defense attorney when they grew up. Or jumping ahead a few decades, perhaps they aspired to work in the prosecutor’s office after watching “Law and Order”? We learned about the inner workings of a law firm by staying glued to the tube when “LA Law” or “The Practice” was on; heck, we even learned what a deposition or trial entailed.

Those few TV shows alone gave us a basic understanding of the difference between civil law and criminal law. A common legal question posed is what is the difference between civil law and criminal law?

The main difference between the two types of law is that civil law is when a person or entity seeks to redress or punish for a wrong which should be rectified with compensation or restitution; using the law the person who was wronged wants the wrongdoer to be punished.

In criminal law, the object of the law is to punish the wrongdoer for his deeds and

to make an example, of sorts, to others of his or her

wrongdoing. By punishing the wrongdoer, he or she becomes reformed and hopefully thwarts further wrongdoing.

Civil law defined

The most common types of civil law are cases of personal injury. Two categories of personal injury would be negligence or malpractice. When one thinks of malpractice, they usually think of medical malpractice, but there are many types of negligence or malpractice and not all are medically related. There might be accounting, banking or even lawyer malpractice. But negligence is not the only reason why a civil matter is filed. A civil case involves disputes between individuals and companies, for which the end result will be compensation that is awarded to the victim. Typical civil law matters

involve child custody proceedings, property disputes, divorce proceedings and more minor disagreements, such as landlord/tenant disputes.

Typically, the process of a civil lawsuit begins when a party files a Complaint against another party. The filing party, or parties, would be called the Plaintiff(s) and they may be an individual, a company or an organization. The responding party(ies), or Defendant(s), may similarly be one individual, a company or an organization. The process of filing a civil lawsuit is referred to as litigation. In the Complaint, the Plaintiff asks the court to order the Defendant to provide a remedy for how it was wronged, usually in the form of monetary compensation.

During the process of the case, discovery will be taken by each party, in the form of depositions or written questions which are referred to as pleadings. Both parties seek answers as they proceed through the steps up to trial and the Plaintiff must be vigilant if they are to prevail. The Plaintiff lawyers must be able to produce evidence that shows beyond the balance of probabilities and “beyond a reasonable doubt” that they have been wronged by the Defendant(s).

In a civil case, if the matter advances to trial, the case may be tried before a jury, or just the judge. The latter would be termed a bench trial. Unlike a criminal trial, where a jury must be present, attorneys will request a jury trial (or not) at the time they file the Complaint. The outcome of a jury trial differs from state to state i.e. it does not always need to be a unanimous verdict. The outcome of the trial determines if the Defendant(s) is/are found liable of any wrongdoing. Depending on the verdict, either Plaintiff or Defendant is permitted to appeal to a higher court if they are unhappy with the outcome of the trial.

Criminal law defined

In the case of a criminal matter, the government recognizes that a crime or criminal wrong has been committed, and, through its prosecutors or Attorney General, will file criminal charges against the Defendant. An individual is not permitted to file criminal charges against an individual or company – only the government may file

such a charge.

Criminal charges are classified in two categories, based on the level of how serious they are. For example, there are felonies which involve a sentence of more than one year of incarceration, and misdemeanors which involve a sentence of less than one year of incarceration. Examples of criminal activity for which the government will file a

charge would be theft/robbery, assault and battery, trafficking in controlled substances and the most serious - murder.

When the trial is being conducted, the government must show "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the Defendant is guilty of the charges brought against him. The prosecution’s job is to prove to the jury that the Defendant is guilty, and if they do not succeed in this mission, the Defendant remains “innocent until proven guilty”; trials can languish for weeks, even months – especially in some arduous or high-profile cases.

In a criminal trial, the terminology is not defined as liable/not liable, but guilty/not guilty. If, at the conclusion of the trial, the Defendant is found guilty, he is convicted; if not found guilty, he is deemed acquitted. The jury’s verdict must be unanimous before a Defendant may be convicted. If the verdict finds the Defendant guilty, he/she may appeal; conversely, if the verdict favors the Defendant and he is acquitted, the prosecution is not permitted to appeal.

If the Defendant is found guilty, he will be subject to custodial or non-custodial punishment. Custodial punishment is imprisonment, and a guilty Defendant will remain in prison, no matter how long the lengthy appeal process takes. In the case of a guilty Defendant who received non-custodial punishment, there will be fines or community service put into place. In some extreme cases, such as murder, the punishment is the death penalty. The death penalty does not apply to all guilty Defendants, because the death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is a legal sentence in only 31 of the 50 states at the present time (per www.amnestyusa.org).

Hopefully, this little primer on differentiating between civil and criminal law answers any legal questions you might have had and has given you some insight on these two very dissimilar types of law.