The Difference Between Civil Law and Criminal Law

Student Handout 3. 1 The residual Between Civil Law and Criminal Law When is a legal problem iniquitous and when is it well-mannered? What difference does it make whether it is criminal or civil? One way of looking at criminal law is that it is dealing with something of common interest. For example, the human race has an interest in seeing that people are protected from being robbed or assaulted. These are legal problems that f wholly into the criminal law.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. earthly concern funds are used to pay for these services. If you are the victim of a crime, you report it to the police and they take up the responsibility to investigate. They arrest and charge the suspect.In most cas es, if a charge has been properly laid and if there is bear witness supporting it, the Crown Prosecutor, not the soul who complains of the incident, prosecutes it in the courts. This is called a system of public prosecutions. Long past the person who had been wronged prosecuted the case. The power to prosecute privately remains, but is used rarely now. Even if a person starts a prosecution privately, the Attorney General has the power to take over the prosecution of the case. As a victim, you do not maintain to be responsible for enforcing the law.The police and Crown Prosecutor do their jobs for the public at large, not for you personally. In a criminal case, the Crown prosecutor moldiness prove the suspects guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This means that at the end of a trial run the judge or jury can only find the defendant guilty if they are left hand without a reasonable doubt about the defendants guilt. In other words, there is no logical or rational reason to doubt th e defendants guilt. This is not the case in civil law. Civil law is about private disputes etween individuals or between individuals and organizations. Civil matters include areas much(prenominal) as contract law, family law, tort law, property law and labour law. The person suing for a wrong has the slant of proving their case on a balance of probabilities. This means that a judge or jury must believe their story and evidence more than the defendants version. They do not need to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil disputes usually involve some harm, loss or injury to one party or their property.Unlike criminal law however, civil law is primarily entangled with compensating victims. If a civil execution 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 apt(p) or not liable for damages. If you have a civil law problem, you have to t ake action yourself if you want to get a legal remedy. You can hire a private lawyer, and you will have to pay the expenses of pursuing the matter.For example, if you hire someone to paint your house and they do a poor job, it is a dispute between you and the painter. The police do not get involved. If you want to sue the painter for dishonor of contract, it is your responsibility to do so. Sometimes criminal law is referred to as part of our public law because it applies to all Canadians and regulates relationships within our society. Similarly, civil law is sometimes referred to as private law because it regulates private relationships between individuals in our society.