Civil and criminal cases?

biddybops

Hi
Just looking for some information regarding what the criteria is regarding the difference between a civil and criminal case, i.e.
When do you decide to go to a solicitor or to the guards?.
Have tried looking online but it's very ambiguous.
Many thanks

Tom Young

www.citizensinformation.ie Find Justice in there, it gives a decent summary of what you're looking for.

biddybops

Tom Young wrote: »

www.citizensinformation.ie Find Justice in there, it gives a decent summary of what you're looking for.

Many thanks but the link didn't 'work for me'. I did peruse the CAB website and whilst informative, I found the criminal law section quite convoluted.
I was hoping just to get a general understanding of the difference between the two.
Once again many thanks.

Tom Young

I'll post the sections later on.

ResearchWill

biddybops wrote: »

Many thanks but the link didn't 'work for me'. I did peruse the CAB website and whilst informative, I found the criminal law section quite convoluted.
I was hoping just to get a general understanding of the difference between the two.
Once again many thanks.

This might help http://www.diffen.com/difference/Civil_Law_vs_Criminal_Law

The link does not relate exactly to the Irish situation but it gives an overview.

Procrastastudy

Criminal Law regulates society as a whole;

Murder, Rape, Assault, Traffic Violations, Theft and Deception would all be examples.

Civil Law is generally between individuals (loosely) and falls (broadly and non-exhaustively) into Contract - deals you agree to and Tort - where you might never have had an dealings with the person.

If you hit me in your car while drunk - thats Criminal Law
I then sue you for my injuries thats Tort Law (Civil)
You agree to settle out of Court for €10,000 thats Contract Law (Civil)

Probably quite a bad explanation but you get what you pay for... (contract :P)

Just a quick question of my own - Constitutional Law - Civil Law or its own thing?

Most of the time when you are dealing with a shop etc thats Contract - the amount of people 'who know their rights' and want to 'call the guards' does astound me.

johnnyskeleton

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Just a quick question of my own - Constitutional Law - Civil Law or its own thing?

Public law mostly.

retroactive

Generally, it's lazy to think of our judicial system in terms of civil and criminal cases. There are similarities and differences, sometimes the lines become blurred e.g Article 40 hearings, judicial review and consititutional challenges etc. Also, when viewed at a macro level, both are really about society. Whether it is criminal wrong or an 'economic' wrong, the courts are there to ensure justice and equity. If the OP is writing an essay, he should include the cross over and multi-level analysis.

When do you go to a solicitor and when do you go to the Gardai? Usually an economic matter requiring private enforcement will involve a solicitior. A criminal matter - assault, drugs - would involve the Gardai. Of course, you don't necessarily need to inform the Gardai - you may become a common law informant and make a complaint through (and I may be wrong) the Petty Sessions Act (S.3?)

How do people feel about the two court complexes - Four Courts and Justice? Is there a thread on it?

biddybops

retroactive wrote: »

Generally, it's lazy to think of our judicial system in terms of civil and criminal cases. There are similarities and differences, sometimes the lines become blurred e.g Article 40 hearings, judicial review and consititutional challenges etc. Also, when viewed at a macro level, both are really about society. Whether it is criminal wrong or an 'economic' wrong, the courts are there to ensure justice and equity. If the OP is writing an essay, he should include the cross over and multi-level analysis.

When do you go to a solicitor and when do you go to the Gardai? Usually an economic matter requiring private enforcement will involve a solicitior. A criminal matter - assault, drugs - would involve the Gardai. Of course, you don't necessarily need to inform the Gardai - you may become a common law informant and make a complaint through (and I may be wrong) the Petty Sessions Act (S.3?)

How do people feel about the two court complexes - Four Courts and Justice? Is there a thread on it?

Many thanks, I am now on my 2nd hot whiskey and first paracetamol!
Only got my head around civil and criminal law and then ye go and muddy the water with public law! ( synapses don't fire up as quickly as they once did)
GCD am I wrong in surmising that criminal law changes to civil law if you employ a solicitor? I am not talking about murder or rape, just in general.
And can you explain common law informant in more detail. I am not doing an essay, in fairness I can can just about string a coherent sentence together, and it's years since I had any legal lectures and all I can recall from that is brehon law, don't know why.

retroactive

There are three ways of instituting Criminal Prosecution
- Charge Sheet Procedure
- Summons under the Petty Sessions Ireland) Act 1851
- Issue of Summons under the Courts (No.3) Act 1986

Charge Sheet is used by the Gardai in several circumstances e.g Arrested without a warrant and released on station bail

Petty Sessions Ireland) Act 1851allows "information" to be laid on front of a District Court judge who may issue a summons on foot of said information. The information is can be laid either orally or in writting by any person. The information is usually laid ex parte
The case of DPP (O'Connor) v DJ Mangan [2010] 3 IR 530 gives a useful description of the differences between a summons and a complaint.

Courts (No.3) Act 1986 is used by the Gardai.

In practice, a time limit of 6 months from the alleged offence applies to all three procedures. Although there is a bit of a grey area when it comes to indictable and summary offences (DPP v Logan (1994)) although S 177 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 clears this up, somewhat.

---

Criminal Law does not change to civil if you employ a solicitor. The posts above define, compare and contrast civil and criminal law in quite good detail. The choice to employ an officer of the court has no effect on the nature of the proceedings.

Procrastastudy

Jesus you had to bring the common law into this! Okay firstly the solicitor thing is completely wrong sorry Solicitors and Barristers do bothe Criminal and Civil law - not some much the same people anymore but thats becuase they split the courts up. We can come back to that lets get very confused with civil law and civil law (not a mistype :P)

Civil Law system is analogous to the Common Law system. Common Law is used in most of the places Britain invaded - and came from the Normans. Civil Law is used in most of the rest of the world except in places where Islamic Law would be used. Scotland and South Africa, Louisiana and Quebec use hybrid Common/Civil Law systems.

Civil Law in this context is not the civil law you were talking about in your OP - its a type of law based on codification. e.g. Laws are written down in codes and you can look them up.

Common Law is essentially Judges making it up as they go along - which isn't as bad as it sounds as there is something called Stare Decisis (Let the decision stand) which means they have to be guided by previous decisions.

In practice we codify out laws in the Common Law world in acts - these are not the only forms of law however.

Another difference is the role of a Judge - in the Common Law they sit back listen and make a decision. In the Civil Law system they take a more active role.

Most of this is very general and probably out and out wrong in places I'm just trying to make it accessible with my limited knowledge.

ResearchWill

biddybops wrote: »

Many thanks, I am now on my 2nd hot whiskey and first paracetamol!
Only got my head around civil and criminal law and then ye go and muddy the water with public law! ( synapses don't fire up as quickly as they once did)
GCD am I wrong in surmising that criminal law changes to civil law if you employ a solicitor? I am not talking about murder or rape, just in general.
And can you explain common law informant in more detail. I am not doing an essay, in fairness I can can just about string a coherent sentence together, and it's years since I had any legal lectures and all I can recall from that is brehon law, don't know why.

To give an example of how something can be both a civil wrong and a criminal wrong.

I am walking down the street and a person jumps out from an side street hits me and runs away. Now that person has committed a criminal wrong more than likely section 3 non fatal offences against the person act 1997. The person has also committed a civil wrong trespass on the person. I go to the guards and they decide to prosecute the person, I can also bring civil proceedings when I discover the person just won the euro millions under the law of torts and sue for my injury.

A common informer, is any person who brings proceedings in criminal law. This is how most members of AGS bring proceedings in the district court and there is nothing stopping you or me bringing such actions if we wish hence the name common. But for serious crime the DPP has the right to take cases of a serious nature example murder rape, assault causing serious harm etc.

Godd info here on common informer http://www.euro-justice.com/member_states/ireland/country_report/444/


Most crimes now are based in statute, which sets out what the crime is and how much it should be punished, a good example is the non fatal offences against the person act 1997. Plenty more on www.irishstatutebook.ie.

In relation to the two courts it's a pain if you have a civil matter in the four courts at the same time as a criminal matter in the criminal courts, try run a asylum JR in one and a EAW in the other takes some skill.

retroactive

GCDLawStudent - I didn't mean to bring the common law and civil law distinction into this. I merely mentioned summons under the Petty Sessions Ireland) Act 1851 render the Gardai defunct in some situations, while remaining "Criminal Law". (Procedure is explained above). Although, your whistle stop tour of different jurisdictions was interesting. I can only imagine what the OP thinks now - Civil Law is different to Civil Law.. and they say lawyers are paid to over complicate things...

As a complete aside - I knew a recently called Barrister that has the exact same writing style and lexicon as you. Is Griffith pumping out clones?

Procrastastudy

Brehon law is an odd one - there was a paper I saw presented on it that was very interesting. A bit of an aside but the Canadian Constitution makes provisions for the aboriginal law to be respected somehow. Because they are a Common Law country this has had the odd effect of certain aboriginal laws being refereed to in judgments and becoming Common Law.

Procrastastudy

retroactive wrote: »

GCDLawStudent - I didn't mean to bring the common law and civil law distinction into this. I merely mentioned summons under the Petty Sessions Ireland) Act 1851 render the Gardai defunct in some situations, while remaining "Criminal Law". (Procedure is explained above). Although, your whistle stop tour of different jurisdictions was interesting. I can only imagine what the OP thinks now - Civil Law is different to Civil Law.. and they say lawyers are paid to over complicate things...

As a complete aside - I knew a recently called Barrister that has the exact same writing style and lexicon as you. Is Griffith pumping out clones?

You didn't

biddybops wrote: »

Many thanks, I am now on my 2nd hot whiskey and first paracetamol!
Only got my head around civil and criminal law and then ye go and muddy the water with public law! ( synapses don't fire up as quickly as they once did)
GCD am I wrong in surmising that criminal law changes to civil law if you employ a solicitor? I am not talking about murder or rape, just in general.
And can you explain common law informant in more detail. I am not doing an essay, in fairness I can can just about string a coherent sentence together, and it's years since I had any legal lectures and all I can recall from that is brehon law, don't know why.

Would this person have an oddly amusing sounding last name and first name beginning with S? To be fair my appalling writing is down to dyslexia and a career in retail

biddybops

ResearchWill wrote: »

biddybops wrote: »

Many thanks, I am now on my 2nd hot whiskey and first paracetamol!
Only got my head around civil and criminal law and then ye go and muddy the water with public law! ( synapses don't fire up as quickly as they once did)
GCD am I wrong in surmising that criminal law changes to civil law if you employ a solicitor? I am not talking about murder or rape, just in general.
And can you explain common law informant in more detail. I am not doing an essay, in fairness I can can just about string a coherent sentence together, and it's years since I had any legal lectures and all I can recall from that is brehon law, don't know why.

To give an example of how something can be both a civil wrong and a criminal wrong.

I am walking down the street and a person jumps out from an side street hits me and runs away. Now that person has committed a criminal wrong more than likely section 3 non fatal offences against the person act 1997. The person has also committed a civil wrong trespass on the person. I go to the guards and they decide to prosecute the person, I can also bring civil proceedings when I discover the person just won the euro millions under the law of torts and sue for my injury.

A common informer, is any person who brings proceedings in criminal law. This is how most members of AGS bring proceedings in the district court and there is nothing stopping you or me bringing such actions if we wish hence the name common. But for serious crime the DPP has the right to take cases of a serious nature example murder rape, assault causing serious harm etc.

Godd info here on common informer http://www.euro-justice.com/member_states/ireland/country_report/444/


Most crimes now are based in statute, which sets out what the crime is and how much it should be punished, a good example is the non fatal offences against the person act 1997. Plenty more on www.irishstatutebook.ie.

In relation to the two courts it's a pain if you have a civil matter in the four courts at the same time as a criminal matter in the criminal courts, try run a asylum JR in one and a EAW in the other takes some skill.

Many thanks for all the informative answers. I am still 'at sea' regarding most of the answers but will ponder tomorrow.
The hot whiskeys have nicely done the trick and am now retiring for the night to dream about tort,criminal, civil, public law and common informers.
Always considered being common as a compliment never as a legal entity.

Tom Young

Thread locked. OP should search the abundance of pre-existing threads before coming here to seek out data that is already extant.