Criminal Law vs. Civil Law

by John Bandler

Criminal law and civil law are two separate and important areas of law.

Criminal law is the area of law where the government exercises some of its most powerful domestic powers--the power to arrest an individual and take them into custody and bring them before a court to answer charges. The power even to incarcerate an individual, to sentence them to jail and take away their freedom. All of this means using necessary force if the person refuses. Government brings criminal cases on behalf of soceity.

Civil law is the vast areas and bodies of law that are not criminal law. It is a forum where one person or company can bring a claim against another, typically for monetary damages. It is for more individualized harms.

If you just started learning about law, this article helps you learn an important first concept so you can identify whether a case or event involves:

  • Criminal law, or
  • Civil law.

Criminal law

Criminal law is highly specialized and extremely important, with special considerations that do not apply for civil law. A criminal case is brought by the government, defendants can be arrested, and can be punished if found guilty, including with jail. I discuss this more in my article on criminal law (link below).

Civil law

Civil law is for more individualized harms, includes a set of standards for conduct for people and a process for resolving disputes, including where one party has allegedly wronged another.

This allows one party to sue another party for compensation (damages) and also for an order to do (or refrain from doing) something. A civil case can be brought by almost anyone, an individual, organization, or government. In a civil case, there is almost never any arrest, nor detention, nor jail. There are dozens of different substantive areas of civil law, so in that sense there is more complexity compared to criminal law.

Criminal law and civil law each have subcategories to know

Both criminal law and civil law have "substantive" legal provisions and "procedural" legal provisions.

  • Substantive law is the rules of conduct, what to do or not do. If someone allegedly violated those rules, they could be arrested (criminal law) or sued (civil law).
  • Procedural law is the process for resolving a dispute when one party claims another violated a rule of conduct. For example, the process of a criminal prosecution (from investigation, arrest, trial, and beyond) or of a civil lawsuit (summons, complaint, trial, and beyond).

Criminal laws and civil laws can be either state or federal.

  • State statutes and state courts specify rules for conduct and how to behave (criminal and civil) and process for dealing with disputes about them within state courts
  • Federal statutes and federal courts specify rules for conduct (criminal and civil) and process for litigating disputes in federal courts. Also realize that federal courts often apply state law (as well as federal law).

An infographicCriminal law vs Civil Law Bandler 2023-12

This diagram lays out some important differences between criminal law and civil law. In sum:

  • Criminal law
    • Government on behalf of society
    • Societal goals (protect, deter, punish, rehabilitate)
    • Arrest, custody, even jail
    • Proof standard beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD)
    • Constitutional protections for defendants
  • Civil law
    • Anyone can sue, for more individualized harms
    • Usually to recover money (monetary damages)
    • No arrest, a summons (order to appear)
    • Lower proof standard (usually a preponderance of the evidence, more likely than not)

See links at bottom for my article on civil law and article on criminal law.

A six minute explainer videoCriminal law vs civil law, a six minute explanation on YouTube

I walk you through the difference between civil law and criminal law in under six minutes, see bottom of this page.

Conclusion

Understanding the difference between civil law and criminal law is an important first step towards understanding law.

Everyone should have a basic understanding of law, because it affects our lives, we make legal decisions, and we are a nation of laws.

This short article has many simplifications, is not tailored to your circumstances and is not legal or consulting advice.

If you want to learn more about law, there is lots on this site, my Udemy course, and my books.

Additional reading

This article is hosted at https://johnbandler.com/criminal-law-vs-civil-law, copyright John Bandler, all rights reserved.

Originally posted 2/4/2025, updated 2/4/2025.