Q.
I asked my county's public defender office a question. They told me, "That's civil law, and we do not practice civil law." What is the difference? Thank you.
-- Anonymous
A.
Our legal system is generally divided into two types: civil and criminal. Criminal law, of course, is where someone (the defendant) is charged by the government with having committed a crime. If the defendant is convicted or pleads guilty, then he or she can be sentenced to prison time or to pay a fine. There is no "plaintiff" in a criminal case. The party opposite the defendant is always the government -- there are no privately brought criminal cases. So the name of the case will be something like "Oregon v. Smith," "State v. Smith," "City of Columbus v. Smith," "U.S. v. Smith," or, in some states, "The People v. Smith."
Civil law is pretty much everything else. When one person or company sues another because of some wrong done, or a contract broken, that's a basic civil law suit. The plaintiff sues the defendant, usually for money damages, but sometimes for some other kind of relief. Domestic relations law (like divorces and custody matters), probate (wills and estates), and other matters are also civil law.
Civil RIGHTS law is something else! That term refers to cases relating in some way to some kind of illegal discrimination (racial, religious, etc.), either by private parties or by the government. Civil LIBERTIES refers to cases where some government or government-related body has overstepped its powers and violated someone's rights under the Constitution. Civil liberties issues can arise in either criminal or civil cases.
This column is for questions about civil rights or civil liberties, not general civil law. I get so many cases about cars, dogs, and noisy neighbors, though, I can see that many people find it all confusing! Thanks for giving me the chance to straighen it out.
