Glad you asked. Civil lawyers cover a lot of territory. They’re like collies in that respect. Civil law basically refers to the area of law that concerns disputes between people, as opposed to criminal law which focuses on disputes between individuals and society, the government, etc. Because these person-to-person disputes often involve lawsuits, a civil attorney might sometimes be referred to as a civil lawsuit attorney. Tacoma, WA, is home to many civil attorneys. Our civil attorneys live up to both meanings of the word “civil” — polite, down-to-earth people who happen to be very good civil lawyers.