Key Differences Between Civil Law And Criminal Law - Essay Example

? Key Differences between Civil law and Criminal law In administration of justice, people depend on differentissues that surround the cases of involved according to the evidence given. Judgment is given according to the different sources of evidence that are availed in cases that presented to the judges or magistrates in a court of law. In this respect, people are likely to be convicted of the crime they committed or to be set free on the bases of lack of substantial evidence to charge them with the crimes they could have committed. According to different issues in administration of justice between two or more people or concerning organisations, there are two kinds of laws that can be identified. These laws include the criminal law, which deals with crimes and legal punishment in which the offenders are accorded the due punishment and; and civil laws, which is designed to settle disputes between two people or organisation and ends up in the compensation of the victims. These kinds of laws are used to handle different cases and they give different kinds of judgement for what should be done in a case where one party is found guilty (Padfield, 2006, p4). They also differ in terms of filing and appealing as well as in terms of the kind of the people who should be involved in approving the judgment of the case. The evaluation of these laws gives incite of how cases are handled in a courtroom where a case is presented to the jury for determination of the issues and passing of judgement. In determining a case, it must first be categorised according to its effects on the state or the involved and it is handled according to different laws that are in the state. In this respect, different cases can be filed by specific parties in case they happen to affect two parties who are present in the case or their representatives. For example, in criminal laws, a case can only be filed by the government or a state against an offender in a certain issue. This means that a defendant to such a case is asked to disapprove the evidence raised by the government through its different organs so as to be set free, failure to which, they will be subjected to different punishments. The filing in a case falling under the civil law is done by a private party who was affected directly by the offence that is reported in the case in a court of law. This means that a person affected in the case are the only people who can file a case against the people who offend them and them or their representatives like lawyers are supposed to follow the proceedings of the case (Padfield, 2006, p47). Another difference between the two laws is that in the case of civil law, victims are punished by reimbursement or compensation to the person who wins in the case. The court in involved in a case of civil law orders a person to make compensation to the people they offended and that means that they are asset free on the condition of making full reimbursement or presenting a plan to do so. It means that an affected person do not necessarily have to suffer in prison in the case of losing a case in the court but can go free but at a condition that they will be able to make compensation for things they have done on the people. Civil law does not award any cases of punitive damages unless in a tort law where the intent of an offender is determined to have been malicious, negligent or a willingly disregarding the person involved in the case. On the other hand, offenders in the cases dealing with criminal laws are incarceration in a jail, they can be charged a fine payable to the government or in some cases they are executed. Crimes falling under the criminal law are divided into two categories according to the punishment length of incarceration and the severity of the cases. In this case, there are felonies, which are given the maximum punishment of incarceration in prison for a period length of not less than one year and misdemeanours crimes are given a maximum incarceration in prison for a period on less than a year. This means that in criminal offenses, people are subjected to imprisonment and other charges but the length of it can be determined by the severity of the crime committed (Standler, 1998, p 2-3). In the case of civil law cases, the appeal can be done by either party i.e. the plaintiff or the defendant, who are not contented with the outcome of the case. This means that one of them can challenge the decision of the court and seek to be justified in a way that is according to their argument and evidence. In appealing, the cases are referred to a higher court for reassessment of the evidence and arguments raised in the first case where one party felt that it was segregated. In a case related to criminal law, appeal can only be filed by the defendant as he or she is the one trying to prove the plaintiff, usually the government, wrong on their cases about their conduct in the past. This is to allow them to disapprove some evidences presented against them in a case that happened in a lower court of law than the one in which they are appealing (Rogers, Blackmur and Video Education Australasia, 2007 p73-77). In cases which fall under the category of criminal law, the burden of proof i.e. presentation of the evidences that a defendant committed the report crime, is solely vested on the government or the state involved. This means that there are no individuals or organisations that can present the evidence on behalf of the government to help the government or the state to convict the offender. On the other hand, the evidences required to proof that a defendant is wrong and need to be charged, in a case that is categorised under civil law, is the sole responsibility of the plaintiff. This means that the plaintiff is required to substantiate all their arguments against the defendants so as to ensure that they are in a position to have them convicted (Quirk, Seddon and Smith, 2010, p15). To determine the case of in criminal lay, the jury has to give a unanimous decision to allow any action to be taken against the defendant in a case. This means that if there are different feelings concerning the judgement, the jury has to make intensive consultation and end up in a unanimous agreement about the case. On the contrary, in a case falling under the civil law, the jury does not have to give a unanimous decision in favour of any party (Jefferson, 2007, p23-30). The cases that fall under the civil law include such like; divorce proceedings, land disputes, personal injury and child custody cases while those falling under criminal law include murder, robbery, drugs trafficking among others. References Jefferson, M. (2007). Criminal law. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Padfield, N. (2006). Criminal law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Quirk, H., Seddon, T., & Smith, G. (2010). Regulation and Criminal Justice: Innovations in Policy and Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rogers, C., Blackmur, A., & Video Education Australasia. (2007). Introduction to criminal and civil law. Bendigo, Vic: Video education Australasia. Standler, R., (1998). Differences between Civil and Criminal Law in the USA. [Accessed on June 10th, 2013] web. Read More