What is Civil Law?

When talking about the law, often people would associate it with the police or committing crimes. However, this is just one side of Law known as criminal law. Civil Law is another side of Law which does not deal with crimes, but with fairness. This includes making sure people are keeping to their promises in contracts, help solving issues in employment and family life and supporting businesses to protect their property such as in copyright claims. Civil Law also has a very different structure in handling its cases. When it comes to deciding what side is right in a case, the law follows a concept known as the 'burden of proof'. In Civil cases, the burden of proof is known as 'the balance of probabilities'. This simply put means that, given the evidence, it just needs to be quite likely that a side could be right for them to win a case. This differs from Criminal law, where the burden of proof is 'beyond all reasonable doubt', meaning it has to be absolutely certain that a defendant is guilty for there to be a guilty verdict. Civil cases rarely go to court, as many issues get resolved before hand through each side's solicitors, or through a system known as Alternate Dispute Resolution, where agreements are made for the parties involved to discuss with each other. Cases are also started by a claim put through by one of the parties, who is known at this stage as a claimant. This differs from criminal law where the police and the crown prosecution service begin court action. At court, the case is heard and decided by a judge. There is no jury unlike criminal law, except in very rare circumstances. Outcomes do not involve sentences like criminal law , but rewards such as money or actions to correct what went wrong.