Civil cases are started by and brought against individuals, businesses and government agencies to enforce a right and achieve a remedy. In contrast, criminal cases are brought by a municipal, state or federal government representing its people, against individuals or organizations charged with a crime. Our legislatures and courts have created many rights and remedies since this nation was founded. Some of those rights date back to the Magna Carta of the 13 th century. Like it or not, these rights and remedies have resulted in an ever-expanding range of disputes that individuals and businesses rely on lawyers to pursue and defend before judges, arbitrators and mediators .
Defendants can defend by laying back and seeing if the plaintiffs can establish their claims.
A statute of limitation is a law that requires a plaintiff to bring a claim within a specific time from the date the injury or wrong occurred. Statutes of limitation and other rules requiring timely legal action range from a few months to ten years. Each state has its own set of time limits as do federal claims. For example, discrimination plaintiffs usually must file a claim with a state or federal agency within a few months, depending on the type of discrimination and the state where the discrimination occurred. Bankruptcy courts impose time limits on creditors who want to make claims against the bankrupt debtor by sending notices to known creditors.