What Is The Difference Between Civil Law And Criminal Law

Law is a complicated subject at the best of times and understanding the difference between civil law and criminal law can be a bit overwhelming but it is important that you know the basic differences so we’ll try to keep it simple.

Thanks to television and journalists most of us have a pretty good basic understanding relating to criminal law. We tend to get detailed information about trials and the lingo of the court so we quickly begin to understand the concepts.

The problem is that we tend to apply principles we’ve learned to understand in criminal law to situations in civil law also referred to as tort law which is incorrect. Criminal law and civil law are two separate entities with two separate sets of laws and punishments.

In a civil law case a private party which may be an individual, a company, or a corporation files a lawsuit against the other party called the plaintiff. Where as in a criminal law case the litigation is filed by the government called the prosecution against the defendant.

An individual can never file criminal charges against a person only the prosecution for the government can file such charges. Of course those charges are often the result of a crime committed against a person. Should that person wish to seek restitution against the defendant they must file a civil lawsuit.

One of the very distinct differences between criminal law and civil law is the punishment. In criminal law a person found guilty is punished by incarceration in a prison, a fine, or in the rare occasion by execution through the death penalty.

There are two types of crimes. Misdemeanors which have a maximum sentence of one year or less and felonies which have a minimum sentence of one year up to a life time.

In civil law a guilty party is never incarcerated or executed. A party found guilty is usually referred to as the losing party and they will be required to reimburse the plaintiff the amount of loss determined by the judge and called punitive damages.

It is important to realize that punitive damages cannot be awarded in a civil case that is covered by contract law. However a civil case covered by tort law may see a judgment for punitive damages if the defendants behavior had malicious intent, showed gross negligence, or a willful disregard for the rights of others.

Home and Auto insurance policies carry coverage for the policy holder to cover the punitive damages and lawyers fees if a tort claim results as a part of the insurance coverage. In contrast there is no insurance company that sells insurance to cover the costs of criminal acts and the criminals lawyers fees.

Even though a judge orders a defendant to pay damages a plaintiff may not receive any monies if the defendant has no insurance or no assets.

There is a strong belief that the threat of punishment will deter a criminal from committing the crime. However this would mean that the human being must be rational and for the vast majority of the population this is true however it has been shown that criminals are both impulsive and believe they will not be caught therefore the threat of punishment does not deter them from committing the crime.

Because law believes the possibility of the loss of ones freedom is much more serious than having to pay damages to a plaintiff the criminal litigation is a much more serious process than civil litigation meaning criminal defendants actually have more rights and protections than civil defendants do.

In criminal law the burden of proof always lies with the government. In other words the government must prove that the defendants guilt. The prosecution must prove that the defendant satisfies each element of the definition of a crime and that his or her participation was beyond a reasonable doubt.

In civil law the burden of proof begins with the plaintiff and then the burden switches to the defendant to rebut the plaintiffs evidence.

In civil litigation the plaintiff will win if the evidence favors the plaintiff. If the judge or jury believes there was more than a 50% chance that the defendant was negligent the plaintiff will win which is a very low standard compared to the 99% proof for criminal law.

Criminal law and civil law are distinctly different but each is a system used to make a wrong a right through a fair judicial process.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.