So let's compare criminal vs. civil law.
In a civil case, the government is not involved.
Well, the government could be involved as a party, but the government is not running
the case, let's put it that way, okay?
In a civil case, let's say that you get into a car accident with someone, or someone builds
a building or a shed or something that's on your property, that goes over the property
line.
All right?
Those are situations that really don't involve the government.
They really don't involve the rest of society.
The problem is between you and your neighbor, or you and the person that you got into the
car accident with.
Those are civil matters.
They're individual harms that were caused, and there's an individual remedy.
That remedy, by the way, is usually money.
That's what the civil courts usually deal in - money.
That's usually the remedy for any type of civil violation.
There also is such thing as an injunction.
You could, for example - going back to our shed example - you could get the court to
order that person not just to pay you for whatever inconvenience was caused, but also
to actually move the shed and not cross your property line with anything else - any other
materials or something like that.
Okay?
So, that's the way civil works, and since it's party to party, since it's all private,
and the government's not involved, the attorneys are private, too.
If you want to have an attorney in a civil case, hire one.
Because the government's not going to pay for one for you.
All right?
Also, in a civil case, both parties are on an equal, even playing field.
They both carry the same burden of proof.
And, by the way, that burden is typically going to be a preponderance of the evidence.
You could call that 51%.
Okay, oops, my hands aren't showing I guess, but there you go.
That's' supposed to be the scales of justice, all right?
So, basically, one side, if one side puts on evidence that's just a little bit more
compelling than the other side, and the jury feels that way, that side wins, if it's a
jury trial, okay?
And speaking of which, it doesn't have to be a jury trial, it could be a court trial,
too, meaning that the judge decides the case instead of a jury.
But even if it is a jury trial, unlike criminal cases where a unanimous verdict is virtually
always required, in a civil case, in many states, a unanimous verdict is not required.
Now, in the federal system, they require a unanimous verdict whether it's civil or criminal,
but in state systems, many states do not require a unanimous jury verdict for a civil case.
All right, now let's move over to criminal law.
In criminal law, then, the harm is supposed to be a public harm.
When, let's say your neighbor - they have a domestic dispute at your neighbor's house.
And you can hear screaming, and someone calling for help, let's say or something, or glass
breaking, okay?
Someone involved in the actual incident might think that, "well, it happened in my house
and between me and this other person, and so that's a private matter."
It's not, all right?
It's not because our society has decided that this type of behavior harms the whole community.
It makes - so you're sitting in your place, and you're listening to all of this - it makes
it worse for you.
It makes it worse for everyone in the neighborhood.
Same thing with drug dealing, same thing with prostitution, we can go down the list.
And we will, in this course, okay?
But for now, let's just say that criminal law is designed to provide a remedy for public
harms.
Okay?
Public harm, public remedy, public attorneys.
So that's why you get a prosecutor, that's why you get a public defender.
If you feel aggrieved, like I said before, if someone built their shed on your land,
well too bad, you're going to go have to hire an attorney, you're going to have to go file
it in court.
But if someone punches you in the face and the police are called, and it's determined
to be a battery, you don't have to hire an attorney.
You can if you want, to.
You can sue them in addition.
But you don't have to hire an attorney.
The government will provide a prosecutor, at no expense to you, to prosecute that case.
Why?
Because they're trying to do you a favor?
No.
Because the notion is that when that person did that, it was a public harm, and there
should be a public remedy, and there's going to be a public attorney representing you,
or your interests.
The state's interest really, but we'll get into that more later, too.
Same thing on the other side, so the other side - while the defendant has the right to
hire an attorney if he or she wants to, they don't have to.
And if they can't afford an attorney, our system, the US system, will provide an attorney
free of charge.
That would be a public defender.
Okay?
Now, let's move to the next category.
Remember the plaintiffs and defendants on an equal playing field in the civil case?
Not so here.
Not so.
Here, the defendant is presumed innocent.
There's a legal presumption that the defendant isn't guilty of anything.
And the state has all the burden.
Whereas before, both parties carried the burden of proof equally, here the state carries all
the burden.
The defendant doesn't have to do anything.
That defendant can walk into the courtroom, sit down and not say a word during the entire
trial, and win, and be found not guilty, if the state doesn't carry its burden to prove
that person guilty of every offense charged, every element of every offense charged.
Okay?
And that burden is a very high burden.
Remember a few minutes ago, we talked about that preponderance of the evidence burden,
how I said if its just a little bit more, then one side wins.
Not so here.
Okay?
This time the burden is beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's the highest burden we have in our justice system.
And it's all carried, again, by the state.
And finally, one more protection for the criminal defendant is that a unanimous verdict is almost
always required.
There are a couple situations where it's not, but 99% of the time, let's say, okay - in
a criminal case, a unanimous verdict is required.
So that's a little comparison for you between the civil court system and the criminal court
system.