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Criminal, Civil, and Administrative Law

As stated above, common law will be the most represented in the exam, so it will be the primary focus here. Within common law there are various branches of law, including criminal, civil, and administrative law.

Criminal Law

Criminal law pertains to those laws where the victim can be seen as society itself. While it might seem odd to consider society the victim when an individual is murdered, the goal of criminal law is to promote and maintain an orderly and law-abiding citizenry. Criminal law can include penalties that remove an individual from society by incarceration or, in some extreme cases in some regions, death. The goals of criminal law are to deter crime and punish offenders.

Due to the seriousness of potentially depriving someone of either their freedom or, in the most extreme cases, his or her life, the burden of proof in criminal cases is considerable. In order to convict someone accused of a criminal act, the crime must be proved beyond any reasonable doubt. Once proven, the punishment for commission of a criminal act will potentially include incarceration, financial penalties, or, in some jurisdictions, execution as punishment for the most heinous of criminal acts.

Civil Law

In addition to civil law being a major legal system in the world, it also serves as a type of law within the common law legal system. Another term associated with civil law is tort law, which deals with injury (loosely defined), resulting from someone violating their responsibility to provide a duty of care. Tort law is the primary component of civil law, and is the most significant source of lawsuits that seek damages.

Society is seen as the victim under criminal law; under civil law the victim will be an individual, group, or organization. While the government prosecutes an individual or organization under criminal law, within civil law the concerned parties are most commonly private parties. Another difference between criminal and civil law is the goal of each. The focus of criminal law is punishment and deterrence; civil law focuses on compensating the victim.

One act can, and very often does, result in both criminal and civil actions. A recent example of someone having both criminal and civil penalties levied is in the case of Bernie Madoff, whose elaborate Ponzi scheme swindled investors out of billions of dollars. Madoff pleaded guilty in a criminal court to 11 felonies including securities fraud, wire fraud, perjury, and money laundering. In addition to the criminal charges levied by the government, numerous civil suits sought compensatory damages for the monies lost by investors in the fraud.

A popular example involves the O.J. Simpson murder trial, in which Mr. Simpson was acquitted in a criminal court for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown, and Ronald Goldman, but later found liable in civil court proceedings for causing the wrongful death of Mr. Goldman.

The difference in outcomes is explained by the difference in the burden of proof for civil and criminal law. In the United States, the burden of proof in a criminal court is beyond a reasonable doubt, while the burden of proof in civil proceedings is the preponderance of the evidence. “Preponderance” means it is more likely than not. Satisfying the burden of proof requirement of the preponderance of the evidence in a civil matter is a much easier task than meeting the burden of proof requirement in criminal proceedings. The most common outcome of a successful ruling against a defendant requires the payment of financial damages. The most common types of financial damages are presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Common Types of Financial Damages.

Type	Description
Statutory	Statutory damages are those prescribed by law, which can be awarded to the victim even if the victim incurred no actual loss or injury.
Compensatory	The purpose of compensatory damages is to provide the victim with a financial award in effort to compensate for the loss or injury incurred as a direct result of the wrongdoing.
Punitive	The intent of punitive damages is to punish an individual or organization. These damages are typically awarded to attempt to discourage a particularly egregious violation where the compensatory or statutory damages alone would not act as a deterrent.