CRIMINAL LAW VS. CIVIL LAW

Welcome to the inaugural edition of LawTalk. This article is being offered as a service to readers of this site in an effort to give insight into our laws and how they relate to ever day problems encountered by you from time to time. You are encouraged to send questions or topics of interest.
In order for you to better understand the law it is imperative that you first understand the distinction between criminal law and civil law, the two traditional types. I say traditional because, with the war on terrorism, the Bush administration seems to be developing a new, third area of law which I will discuss later.

Most people are familiar with some criminal law or crimes. These involve acts which are bad for the general public - acts which society will not tolerate. Take murder for example - lots of people get upset if you kill someone. Or if you steal something - that’s also a crime against society. These are examples of crimes that are very well known.

There are many, many other crimes which are not as well known. In Kentucky, for example, there is a law governing the feeding of garbage to swine. Its purpose is to prevent the transmission of diseases which is obviously for the good of the general public. I wonder how many farmers around here are not familiar with this law and are committing a crime every day?

Another law in Kentucky prohibits allowing cattle to run at large. Therefore, for those of you contemplating it, you should not have a cattle drive down Main Street. This would, obviously, be dangerous to the general public, and would be a crime.

The above are all examples of crimes and anyone found guilty of committing a crime could be either fined, jailed, or both. An act can be a crime by virtue of either a state or a federal law and the punishment for committing a crime is meted out in criminal court by the state of federal government, depending upon which government’s law has been broken.

Now, let’s assume that some cowboy decides to have a cattle drive down main street, despite that being a crime, and that during that activity a bull gores you while you are watching from the sidewalk wearing your red shirt. In addition to having committed a crime against society, which would be handled in criminal court, he has also committed a tort against you and you would then have an individual claim against the cowboy. You can collect damages for your injuries from him and this would be a civil action pursued in civil court. Your damages would normally consist of medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Finally, there can be a civil action which doesn’t involve a crime. Suppose the cowboy fences in his cattle but the bull gets out because the cowboy didn’t properly maintain his fence. Suppose also that you are walking by at the time, wearing a new red shirt, and get gored again. The cowboy hasn’t broken a law, since he wasn’t allowing his cattle to run a large, but he has infringed upon your individual rights because he didn’t keep his fence properly mended which allowed the bull to escape and, unfortunately, cause you to be injured again.

That’s the distinction in a nutshell. Civil law protects your individual rights while criminal law protects the rights of society as a whole. Next month I want to take a look at a new branch of law that seems to be emerging out of our war on terrorism. In some ways you should find this development very troublesome.

You may reach Roger Oliver by e-mail at rmo@oliverlawoffices.com.