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Foundations of Law / Criminal Law / Basic Elements of a Crime / Civil Law vs. Criminal Law

Civil Law vs. Criminal Law

See Also:
Video-Course: Overview of Criminal Law - Module 1 of 5
Video-Course: Trials and Judgements - Module 4 of 5
Short Video: Common Intentional Torts, Part 1

Civil law and criminal law are two broad and separate entities of law with separate sets of laws and punishments.

Examples of criminal law include cases of burglary, assault, battery and cases of murder. Civil law applies to cases of
negligence or malpractice, for example.

Comparison Chart of the difference between Civil Law and Criminal Law:
Civil law deals with the disputes between Criminal law is the body of law that deals with crime and the
De nition: individuals,  organizations, or between the two, legal  punishment of criminal o enses.
in which compensation  is awarded to the
victim.

Burden of “Preponderance of evidence” The burden of “Beyond a reasonable doubt”: Burden of proof is always on
proof: proof falls on  the plainti . One must produce the  state/government.
evidence beyond the  balance of probabilities.

Examples: Landlord/tenant disputes, divorce Theft, assault, robbery, tra cking in controlled substances,
proceedings, child  custody proceedings, murder, etc.
property disputes, personal injury, etc.

Type of Civil litigation usually involves some type of A guilty defendant is punished by incarceration and/or nes,
punishment: compensation for injuries or damages as well or in exceptional cases, the death penalty. Crimes are
as disposition of property  and other disputes. divided into two broad classes: Felonies and Misdemeanors.

Case led by: Private party Government/State

Appeal: Either Party Only Defendant

See state laws, doesn’t have to be unanimous Unanimous Decision

Jury:

Cases:
In civil law, a case commences when a complaint is led by a party, which may be an individual, an organization, a
company or a corporation, against another party. The party complaining is called the plaintiff and the party responding is
called the defendant and the process is called litigation. In civil litigation, the plaintiff is asking the court to order the
defendant to remedy a wrong, often in the form of monetary compensation to the plaintiff. In contrast, in criminal law, the
case is led by the government, usually referred to as the State and represented by a prosecutor, against a defendant. An
individual can never le criminal charges against another person: an individual may report a crime, but only the government
can le criminal charges in court. Crimes are activities punishable by the government and are divided into two broad classes
of seriousness: felonies having a possible sentence of more than one year incarceration and misdemeanors having a
possible sentence of one year or less incarceration.Cases:

Punishment:
One of the notable differences between civil law and criminal law is the punishment. In case of criminal law a person found
guilty is punished by incarceration in a prison, a ne, or in some occasion's death penalty. Whereas, in case of civil law the
losing party has to reimburse the plaintiff, the amount of loss which is determined by the judge and is called punitive
damage. A criminal litigation is more serious than civil litigation in that criminal defendants have more rights and protections
than a civil defendant.

Burdens of proof:
In case of criminal law, the burden of proof lies with the government in order to prove that the defendant is guilty. On the
other hand, in case of civil law the burden of proof rst lies with the plaintiff and then with the defendant to refute the
evidence provided by the plaintiffs. In case of civil litigation if the judge or jury believes that there are more than 50% of the
evidence favoring the plaintiffs, then plaintiffs win, which is very low as compared to 99% proof for criminal law. In case of
criminal law, defendant is not declared guilty unless there are approximately more than 99% proofs against him.

How the system works:

One can say that criminal law deals with looking after public interests. It involves punishing and rehabilitating offenders, and
protecting the society. The police and prosecutor are hired by the government to put the criminal law into effect. Public
funds are used to pay for these services. If suppose you are the victim of the crime, you report it to the police and then it is
their duty to investigate the matter and nd the suspect. In most cases, if a charge has been properly presented and if there
is evidence supporting it, the Government, not the person who complains of the incident, prosecutes it in the courts. This is
called a system of public prosecutions. On the other hand, civil law is about private disputes between individuals or
between an individual and an organization or between organizations. Civil law deals with the harm, loss, or injury to one
party or the other. A defendant in a civil case is found liable or not liable for damages, while in a criminal case defendant
may be found guilty or not.

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