Civil Claims and Family Violence

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ivil law, on the other hand, in particular that branch of civil law called "tort law" (the word "tort" comes from the Latin word for "wrong"), deals with a person's offences against other people, such as personal injuries, motor vehicle accidents, negligence, assault and battery, trespass, and so forth.

The legal definition of a tort is "a breach of a duty owed by someone to someone else which gives rise to a cause of action," like a duty not to hit someone, a duty to drive carefully, or a duty not to dig a hole in your lawn that someone might fall into. Generally speaking, these sort of civil offences aren't set out in laws the way that the rules against robbery or assault are set out in the Criminal Code; they're creatures of the common law, the law that the courts have created.

That explanation of the difference between criminal law and civil law was a bit technical. Another way of looking at it is through the example of O.J. Simpson. If you recall, O.J. was tried twice for the same basic issue. First, he was criminally tried for an alleged murder. Second, the family of the victim sued him in civil court for the alleged wrongful death of the victim.

Essentially, the criminal trial was because of O.J.'s alleged crime of killing someone contrary to the criminal law (a crime against the state) and the civil trial was because of his alleged tort offence against the family of the victim (a wrong against the family). The important point here is that the one thing O.J. was alleged to have done gave rise to both the criminal charges and the family's tort claim: two separate court proceedings, one in criminal court and one in civil court.

If you are punched by someone, for example, that person's conduct may result in both:

  1. a criminal prosecution, for a breach of the criminal law that makes it an offence to intentionally cause an injury to someone else, and
  2. a civil court proceeding, for a breach of the civil duty not to harm someone else, which may give you a cause of action in tort and allow you to sue the person who hit you for damages.

Possible punishments for someone found criminally guilty include:

  • fines,
  • a jail sentence,
  • both a fine and a jail sentence, or
  • imposed terms or conditions, like a restraining order or a peace bond.

In contrast, the goal of civil law is compensation for the victim more so than punishment of the offender. Compensation is for the harm they suffered. Normally, this takes the form of damages, a financial award intended to compensate for things like pain and suffering, lost wages, rehabilitation and medical expenses, and so forth. Damages are an attempt to provide monetary compensation for the harm suffered as a result of the wrongful act.