Source: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Civil_procedure.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 11:03:18+00:00

Document:
Criminal and civil procedure are different. Although some systems, including the English, allow private persons to bring a criminal prosecution against another person, prosecutions are nearly always started by the state, in order to punish the defendant. Civil actions, on the other hand, are started by private individuals, companies or organisations, for their own benefit. In addition, governments (or their subdivisions or agencies) may also be parties to civil actions. The cases are usually in different courts, and juries are not so often used in civil cases.
In Anglo-American law, the party bringing a criminal charge (that is, in most cases, the state) is called the "prosecution", but the party bringing most forms of civil action is the "plaintiff" or "claimant". In both kinds of action the other party is known as the "defendant". A criminal case against a person called Ms. Sanchez would be described as “The People v. (="versus", "against" or "and") Sanchez,” "The State (or Commonwealth) v. Sanchez" or "[The name of the State] v. Sanchez" in the United States and “R. (Regina, that is, the Queen) v. Sanchez” in England. But a civil action between Ms. Sanchez and a Mr. Smith would be “Sanchez v. Smith” if it was started by Sanchez, and “Smith v. Sanchez” if it was started by Mr. Smith.

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