What are the diffrences between civil and crimanl cases?

Question

What are the diffrences between civil and crimanl cases?

Answer 1

Civil cases usually involve private disputes between persons or organizations. Criminal cases involve an action that is considered to be harmful to society as a whole.

Civil cases are proven by preponderence of the evidence and criminal cases are proven beyond a reasonable doubt

Answer 2

A civil case is a dispute between two parties.

A criminal case is an allegation by the government that the defendant committed a crime.

Some causes of action can give rise to both criminal AND civil cases.

For example.... if I do not pay my income taxes then the government will sue me for what they claim I owe them. This is a civil case - Party A (The IRS) claims that Party B (me) owes them money, and asks a court to make me pay.

At the same time, the government will charge me with the crime of tax evasion. This is a criminal case - the government claims that I broke the law, and asks the court to punish me.

Another example might be if I beat someone up - the person I beat up can sue me civilly for his damages, plus the government will charge me with the crime of battery.

Richard