The two branches of law have two different terminologies and sentencing. In criminal law the case is brought to the court written as “R v Nunn”, the “R” stands for either Rex or Regina (King or Queen), this represents the State. The last part is the surname of the defendant. In a civil case the layout is the surnames of the claimant (first name) and the plaintiff (second name), an example of this is “Nunn v Knox”. The decision is presented as either “guilty” or “not guilty” in criminal cases and “liable” or “not liable” in civil cases. The level of proof is also different in the two courts, in a criminal court the proof must be “beyond reasonable doubt” but in a civil court it is decided “on balance of probabilities”. For instance the proof in a criminal case must be 99% sure of the defendant’s guilt, whilst in a civil case it is 51%.
As well as having different terminologies the two branches of law have separate powers and different court structure. The criminal court structure starts with the Magistrate’s Court, and then there is the Crown Court. The less serious cases, such as driving offences are heard in the Magistrate’s and more serious crimes such as murder and rape are heard in the Crown Court. In the civil law structure there is the Magistrate’s Court, who hears cases such as adoption and childcare, then there is the County Court, which hears less serious cases normally with small amounts of money. The highest civil court is the High Court, this is broken into three main sections: the Queen’s Bench (or King’s Bench when a King is our monarch) this deals with serious civil cases, Family division which deals with divorce and other branches of family law and the Chancery Division which deals with financial matters including tax, wills and company law. The Magistrate Court has restrictions on the sentencing they pass; this is because Magistrate’s are unqualified legally. They can order damages (compensation) to be paid and send people to prison for maximum six months for one offence. Whilst the Crown Court, which is heard by a legally qualified judge and jury, the judge has complete discretion into how they sentence people.
As there are different courts, there are also different judges. In our court structure, the criminal courts which are: The Magistrate’s and the Crown Court, have different judges than the civil court structure. In the Magistrate’s court the “judges” are not actually legally trained people they are simply normal people of the public who are eighteen or over, the magistrate as they are known have been on a course which enables them to sit in a court as a “decision-maker”. In the Crown Court appropriately trained judges sit and give sentences. In the Magistrate’s the magistrate has sanctions on how they sentence whilst the Crown Court judges have boundaries but have total discretion when it comes to sentencing, but what is to be remembered that ion the Magistrate’s the magistrate makes the decision of guilty or not guilty and sets the remedy (the sentence), but in the Crown Court the judge only sets the remedy and the jury makes decision of guilt.
In the civil court, the county court and the high court both have judges making the decision. This is a big difference, between the two branches of law. In civil law there are three divisions, the Family Bench, the Chancery Bench and The Queens Bench, these all have different judges.
The differences between the two branches are huge, but sometimes the two courts “overlap”. This is called “Double Liability”. This is when a criminal action takes place but also a civil discrepancy is occurred. In the case of “Double Liability”, the criminal action takes place, and then the victim of the criminal action will take civil action against the defendant.
In conclusion, the differences between the branches of law are vast; the different laws have differences due to their dissimilar purposes in the English Legal System.
