Civil Law vs. Criminal Law
What is the difference between civil law and criminal law?
Criminal law deals with the offenses committed against the laws set by the state or federal government. The crimes lie in the penal code, and they include acts like murder, drunk driving, or theft. These offenses can only receive prosecution from the government. Civil law deals with disputes between one entity and another. An individual may commit a civil offense by going against the codes outlined in official documents. F or example, an individual failing to follow city code to shovel snow then someone slips and gets hurt, the plaintiff can sue seeking justice for the damages. Such a case would be considered a civil offense (Mann,2011).
Describe to the client the varying levels of proof in a criminal trial, and a civil lawsuit.
The proof in civil trial requires the plaintiff to make the complaint and bear the proof burden. The defendant can plead a denial to some or all of the stated proof and allegation. A plaintiff with evidence in a civil trial means that the defendant is responsible for h damages caused. However, if the plaintiff does not prove through evidence, the defendant does not have to do anything to defend the case (Van et al.,2015).
The evidence in a criminal trial depends on the prosecution where the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The defendant does not have to prove anything if the prosecution fails to prove the case. When the evidence is presented, the courts believe that the accused committed the crime.
What are the differences between civil and criminal court?
The difference between civil court and the criminal court is that civil court is established to solve offenses between businesses or individuals that cannot conclude on their own while the criminal court is designed to deal with individuals who have violated the state or federal law. The civil court process requires the plaintiff to sue the defendant based on the dispute between them. Agencies or business can also file a case against each other in the civil court. The individual that loses a case is required to cater for the damages by paying the other side. In this setup, the individual that loses the case does not have a jail. In a criminal court, the government can file cases against t a defendant depending on the code of law that has been broken (Coffee,2012). The defendant is considered guilty if the government provides a beyond reasonable doubt proof that is above 90 percent of the standard. The guilty defendant is then sentenced to jail as punishment for the offense.
What are the differences between noncapital and capital offenses, and how would this allay the client’s
concerns related to a lengthy sentence for her son?
Capital offenses are serious offenses that are punishable by death. Crimes such as murder can undergo the legal process where the offender is sentenced to death as a punishment for the committed crime. Noncapital cases are considered as misdemeanor cases that do not require being punishable by death (King,2014). Noncapital offenses entail misdemeanors such as custody disputes, property damage, or breach of contract.
In the stated case, the teenage boy is unlikely to be arrested an incarcerated for a lengthy sentence because the offense falls under a misdemeanor case of destruction of property. The restaurant owner will sue if they fail to resolve the dispute amongst them.
References
Mann, K. (2011). Punitive civil sanctions: The middle ground between criminal and civil law. Yale LJ, 101, 1795.
Van Eemeren, F. H., & Houtlosser, P. Crenshaw.J. (2015). Strategic maneuvering with the burden of proof. In Reasonableness and Effectiveness in Argumentative Discourse (pp. 425-442). Springer, Cham.
Coffee, J. C. (2012). Paradigms lost: The blurring of the criminal and civil law models. And what can be done about it? The Yale Law Journal, 101(8), 1875-1893.
King, N. J. (2014). How Different Is Death-Jury Sentencing in Capital and Non-Capital Cases Compared. Ohio St. J. Crim. L., 2, 195.
