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sniper911
May 6, 2007, 06:30 AM
Hello,


Just want to know more about criminal law and civil law and what the different between them and if possible to give some example, and is it have there own court in United state of America,

Thank's allot

RubyPitbull
May 6, 2007, 03:30 PM
Sniper, I will try to make this simple.

Criminal Law refers to cases in which a person may have broken a law, has been arrested, and charged with a crime. The State or the Federal Government has a case against that individual. Examples would be if someone murdered another person, if someone robbed a store, if someone has raped another person. There are a lot of laws here and these are only 3 examples.

Civil Law deals with one person/corporation suing another person/corporation. No laws have been broken, but one party is looking for compensation because they believe the other party has wronged them in some way. Some examples: A person sues a big tobacco company because the person has lung cancer and blames the tobacco company's cigarettes as the direct cause of the cancer. Another would be a corporation suing an employee because the corporation feels the employee broke an employment agreement. A third would be a person suing another person because the 2nd person was drunk and destroyed the first person's furniture. There are many, many different types of civil lawsuits.

There aren't separate courthouses for criminal or civil lawsuits. One building is used for all cases.

s_cianci
May 6, 2007, 03:59 PM
Criminal law deals with statutory law and the violations thereof. For example, murder and speeding are criminal offenses since they involve the violation of written laws. Civil law deals with disputes between individuals, usually over monetary and family issues, where a judge, jury or arbitration panel settles the dispute and attempts to satisfy the injured party as per their determination as to who the wronged party is and what compensation they're entitled to as a result. There are separate courts for dealing with civil and criminal matters.