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Who do civil and criminal proceedings involve?

The criminal justice system involves the state and matters which impact society as a whole. On the other hand, civil proceedings involve private disputes, whose impact is generally limited to individuals.

What matters are covered in criminal law compared with civil law?

Criminal proceedings involve the prosecution of criminal offences allegedly committed by a defendant. Crimes are actions or sometimes omissions which are somehow harmful to society as a whole, such as murder, rape, and theft.

On the other hand, civil law proceedings do not involve “civil offences” but rather “civil wrongs”. They involve the claimant asserting that the defendant has, through an act of commission or omission, caused some kind of harm or damage to the claimant. As a result of this, the claimant has incurred costs or suffered a loss or damage.

Such claims can range from very simple and small-value claims involving individuals, such as suffering personal injury due to the negligence of another, being mis-sold a product which turns out to be faulty, or being unfairly dismissed from work by a horrible boss, to very complex and large-value claims including huge multinational companies. Examples include disputes involving breach of contract, large mergers and acquisitions which go wrong, and newspapers making defamatory statements about celebrities causing significant damage to their reputation.

Any sort of dispute you can think of between individuals will fall into the realm of civil law. By individuals, this includes natural persons —people like you and I — as well as corporations.

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