Civil Law And Criminal Law

741 Words2 Pages

INTRODUCTION
The huge body of the law can be broken down to according to various classifications. Three of the most important distinctions are those between (1) civil law and criminal law, (2) felonies and misdemeanors, and (3) crimes mala in se and mala prohibita (Gaines and Miller, 2013, pg. 69).
CIVIL LAW AND CRIMINAL LAW
Civil law includes all types of law other than criminal law. It deals with the disputes between individuals, organizations, or between the two, in which compensation is awarded to the victim. The purpose of civil law is to deal with the disputes between individuals, organizations, or between the two, in which compensation is awarded to the victim ("Civil Law vs Criminal Law."). This type of cases is filed under private party and the judge decides if the candidate is liable or not. The party who brings up the suit is known as a platiff, and the party who is accused of the harm is known as a defendant. Compensation (usually financial) for injuries or damages, or an injunction in nuisance is a result of punishment. Examples of a civil law would include Landlord/tenant disputes, divorce proceedings, child custody proceedings, property disputes, personal injury, etc("Civil Law vs Criminal Law.").
Criminal law is consisted of offences against society as a whole. That means that even though one person might murder another person, murder itself is considered an offense to everyone in society. Accordingly crimes against the state are prosecuted by the state, and the prosecutor not the victims files the case in court as a representative of the state. If it were civil case then the wronged party would file it (Reuters, 2014). Violation of a statue that prohibits some type of activity is known as the wrongful act. The...

... middle of paper ...

...
Under federal law and in most states, any crime that is not a felony is considered a misdemeanor. Misdemeanors are crimes punishable by a fine or by confinement for up to a year. If imprisoned, the guilty party goes to a local jail instead of a penitentiary. Disorderly conduct and trespassing are common misdemeanors. Like felonies, misdemeanors are graded by a level of seriousness. In Illinois for example, misdemeanors are either Class A (confinement for up to a year), Class B (not more than 6 months), and Class C (not more than 30 days), (Gaines and Miller, 2013, pg. 70). . According to the state of California department of justice, there statistics from 2009 showed that there were 970,221 arrest made in California for misdemeanor offences (“Arrest Statistics.").
Infractions are the least serious form of wrong doing and it is punishable by only a small fine.

More about Civil Law And Criminal Law

Open Document