Civil cases are disputes between private parties, such as a contract or property claim, while criminal cases involve the state prosecuting someone accused of breaking the law. A useful hook: civil disputes are settled, criminal offences are punished.
The core difference
Civil concerns private disputes between citizens; criminal concerns offences against the law that the state prosecutes.
- civil — relating to private disputes between citizens, as opposed to criminal law: She filed a civil lawsuit against her former landlord.
- criminal — involving or relating to crime, or against the law: Fraud is a criminal offence.
How to tell them apart
Both words can describe a type of law or a type of case, so the confusion usually comes from context rather than spelling. Civil law deals with disagreements between individuals or organisations, such as a broken contract or an unpaid debt, and the outcome is usually compensation rather than punishment. Criminal law deals with acts the state itself prosecutes, such as theft or fraud, and the outcome can include fines or imprisonment.
A memory trick: think of civil as belonging to civilians settling matters between themselves, and criminal as belonging to crimes the state pursues on behalf of everyone. Note that civil also has an everyday sense meaning polite, as in keeping a discussion civil, which is unrelated to the legal meaning.
