What is the difference between Civil and Criminal Law?

Question

I need to find out what the difference is between Civil and Criminal Law.

Answer 1

Civil Law encompasses the issues of tort claims, money, probate, common law, divorces, family law and issues where law enforcement is not involved. Traffic accident claims, insurance issues and things that do not involve crimes. Civil actions do not usually involve jail. They involve settlements for stuff like personal injury, juvenile law, adoptions, divorces and the like.

Criminal law involves the treatment of people who break the law and are victims of crimes. Robberies, murders, burglaries, and anything else you can go to jail for and be charged with are crimes and are under the jurisdiction of criminal law.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Criminal law involves punishing and rehabilitating offenders, and protecting society. Since the public has an interest in having criminal law, we give the government the power to put it in place and enforce it. The police and Crown Prosecutors are hired by the government to put the criminal law into effect. Public funds are used to pay for these services.

Civil disputes usually involve some harm, loss or injury to one party or their property. Unlike criminal law; however, civil law is primarily involved with compensating victims. If a civil action is successful, the defendant will be responsible for the wrongful action. While a defendant in a criminal case may be found "guilty" or "not guilty," a defendant in a civil case is said to be "liable" or "not liable" for damages.

Answer 4

Civil law suits are private suits between two or more citizens. Civil law is the area of law by which private individuals resolve their differences with the help of the civil courts. Criminal law involves a citizen or a business and the state. The rules of the federal government and all individual state governments are codified into statutes. When an individual violates the rules, as listed in the statutes, then the federal government or the state will prosecute the individual.

Answer 5

Hi Pammie are you doing your homework or something.

As has been said above, Criminal Law is the state prosecuting individuals that may have committed a crime involving fines or prison if guilty.

Civil Law is all about to legal entities, could be companies or individuals or both, taking actions against one another, to seek damages, enforcement of a contract, or injunctions, i.e. a court ruling which instructs one party to stop doing something.

In Criminal Law you usually have a jury and the defendant is allowed a reasonable doubt, so you have to be certain to convict.

In civil law the ruling looks at what is most probable.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

We did all about this in P.H.S.E a few weeks ago this is what i remember..

criminal law is were the police have to take the person to court even if the victim won't. e.g. A man hits his wife, the person next door hears them and calls the police who come and find her beaten on the floor. The wife won't take her husband to court but the police have to!

civil law is were someone is taken to court by someone else but the police are not involved. e.g. Mr X won't cut down a tree in his garden which is growing across a window of Mrs Y's house. There is no law which says he must cut back his tree so the police can't take him to court so Mrs Y has to!

Hope that helped!

Answer 7

Criminal law deals with offenses against the state (yes I know you're asking about UK law but this is terminology that we use) Its involves VERTICAL relationships in law (which is the relationship between a public body in this case the state, and an individual)
Civil Law deals with private disputes and is concerned with HORIZONTAL relationships (relationships between to private bodies)

There are many differences. The aim of Civil law is to compensate (forget all this american rubbish about suing for $50000000000 for getting hit on the nose, the idea of compensation in the UK is to put the claimant back in the same position they would have been in had the event not occured. There are different types of compensation that are made to punish and show that certain behaviour will not be tolerated, but you shouldnt worry about that yet, general principle is as above) The aim of Criminal Law is to punish and keep the peace.
There is a difference in the burden of proof. In civil law the burden of proof is 'on the balance of probabilities.' This basically means 'on the evidence given, is it more probable that this happened?' In criminal law teh burden of proof is 'Beyond reasonable doubt' so basically if a jury have any reason to doubt that a defendant is guilty, they pass a not guilty verdict. This is why so many people get away with stuff. As one judge said (cant remember his name for the life of me) 'It is better to have 10 guilty men walk free than to send 1 innocent man to jail'
The verdicts are different Civil is Liable/ Not liable, Criminal is Guilty/ Not Guilty.
The court structure is different. Criminal courts start at the magistrates court. If the offense is a summary (least serious classification of offense) offense, then it will be tried in that court, if it is a Hybrid/ triable either way offense (two words for the same thing, hybrid is old terminology, but i prefer it) then the defendant can elect which court to get tried in; Magistrates or Crown court. An indictable offense (most serious, murder rape etc) will only go to the mag. court for Commital procedings (establish who you are, where you live etc, make you aware of your charge) then will be tried in the next level of court, The Crown Court. the C.C is always trial by jury except in fraud cases because the evidence is often too complex for te average person to comprehend. Next highest court is The Court of Appeal Criminal division. The difference in the divisions of the COA is that the Criminal div is freer to go against its own decisions. The Civ. Div can only go against its previous decisions if there is a conflicting HOL decision (HOL must be followed due to court hierachy and precedent) Conflicting COA decisions (obviously one will have to be discarded) or if the previous decision was made PER INCURIAM (in ignorance of the law) Then the HOL heads the Criminal Div.
The civil court structure starts with the county court, Which can hear all claims except defamation and professional negligence claims (among others) but generally wont hear claims worth more than £50,000. THen to the High Court, to the COA: Civ Div then the HOL heads the civil division aswell.

Answer 8

Yes, a big difference. Criminal Law, in short, is where you violate one or all of the three basic rights we are all guaranteed, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Cases such as murder, rape, theft, etc, etc, are all labeled as criminal law. Civil law is where you a private dispute between two individuals or two private parties in cases such as contract disputes, Estate cases (Living wills etc, etc.), family law such as divorce, child custody child support etc., etc. Civil Law is also the most misunderstood law of the land. We all have a decent grasp of criminal law from watching all the cop shows, but civil law is misunderstood and very tricky and there are no real concrete rulings made due to precedence (previous rulings). I hope this answrs your question.

Answer 9

In civil law, a private party (e.g., a corporation or individual person) files the lawsuit and becomes the plaintiff. In criminal law, the litigation is always filed by the government, who is called the prosecution.

Answer 10

If you break a criminal law, the police arrests you.

If you break a civil law, a civilian or an organization or a business sue you (usually) in a County Court.

Answer 11

Civil law is a dispute between individuals. Criminal law deals with prosecutions of offences.

:-)