Section III Wednesday March 02 2011 3 33 PM A Civil Law The Basics 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 Plaintiff vs Defendant Plaintiff is the one who makes the complaint saying the defendant did something that negatively affected him The defendant has to defend himself from the complaint of the plaintiff Tort Law A tort is an alleged harm The plaintiff has to show the following to be able to win Show under the existing law that the defendant had a duty to prevent harm to the plaintiff We all walk around with a duty not to harm to others The plaintiff breached that duty somehow That you suffered some damages as a result of this breach of duty A contract is a promise between two individuals to do something in the future It is backed by the force of law Deals with 2 Contract Law 3 Property Law Contract law establishes the elements of a valid contract Contract law has to deal with whether a The court has to determine how to read the contract What sort of damages should the court impose Property is anything that can be legally owned by one person and therefore that person can exclude anyone he or she sees fit In American law there is a division between real property and personal property Real Land building crops Personal everything else Money clothes anything that isn t a building land or crops Deals with 1 2 3 Who is the owner of a piece of property Who is allowed to use a given property even though they don t own it Who has the right to dispose of a piece of property You don t always have to own something to dispose sell it Examples are deeds titles and rentals 4 Estate Succession Law Also called probate courts Deals with the civil legal consequences that arise after someone dies How do you deal with a persons estate collection of property that the individual leaves behind along with obligations and debts Deals with Establishment of a will a document that explains how a person would like their estate to be handled at his her time of death Court doesn t have to follow this exactly but it is a huge factor Probate determining if a will is legal Settling the persons debts Good wills name an executor that is the accountant of your estate The executor has to first asses the legal obligations of the deceased what debts were left behind He has to sort out the legitimate from the non legitimate bills Spouses are the only ones responsible for debts left behind relatives are not The distribution of estate property 5 Family Law domestic relations law Developed to join a man and woman in marriage and also to deal with the consequences of that union It is about establishing a partnership Expanding to homosexual marriage as well Under English law there was common law and statutory law marriage Statutory marriage was handled by church courts In England there weren t enough priests to do this so common law marriages were added Common law marriage Two individuals would say to the village that they were married No licenses or priests were involved The individuals had to meet the requirements of a marriage In the U S 14 state have common law marriage but there is an ongoing battle over legitimacy If a common law marriage does exist it has all the rights and responsibilities of a statutory law marriage Family law deals with When a marriage can begin and end Until 1970 fault divorce existed where you could only get a divorce if your spouse went to prison went insane was violent cheated refused to procreate was a drunk etc You had to convince the court why you should be allowed to break the marriage This made one person the bag guy even if the divorce was mutual In 1969 California created a no fault divorce law where both spouses agree to break up the marriage and there is no battle P roblem is trying to figure out how to split up the money cars house etc Louisiana has covenant marriage licenses in addition to regular licenses Covenant licenses require a fault of one of the spo uses to have a divorce There is another step called marital separation where you start to protect your assets in defense of a future divorce Before the 70s the wife would get a lot more because they weren t expected to work Husbands sometimes had to pay alimony support payments After 1970 more women were working so this expectation went away Even if they didn t work there was nothing stopping them from getting a job The battle over paternity is this my kid or not How do you prove who is the dad Before DNA testing a husband had to prove a child wasn t his DNA testing made this much easier Custody who gets children after divorce 2 It used to be the wife that got the children but after the 70s it became 50 50 custody Today if the two parents cant agree the court has to make an assessment Nowadays there is a system that takes in amount of custody and salary and then determines the amount of child support Splitting up the assets Children 1 3 Child support Parental termination when do you terminate the parental rights of a person Issus of adoption Living wills when do you have a right to die Section III Page 1 Living wills when do you have a right to die New reproductive technology artificial insemination Same sex marriage 6 Civil Rights Law B The Civil Trial Process Sovereign Immunity The crown or government couldn t be sued they are immune Civil rights law developed after the civil rights period 1950s and says if a government actor violates your civil rights you can then sue 3 7 2011 3 29 PM look for any of these next steps in A Civil Action Most cases don t get all 10 steps because most cases don t go to trial Standard of Proof A decision rule that determines how a court comes to a conclusion Easiest Middle Hardest Preponderance of the evidence Clear and convincing evidence Beyond a reasonable doubt Civil cases Civil cases Criminal cases Preponderance of the evidence the side that judge jury believes more wins Beyond a reasonable doubt you have to believe every aspect of a prosecutor s case beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant is innocent until proven guilty Reasonable doubt it left up to the juror The stakes are higher in criminal cases thus higher amounts of evidence is required Clear and convincing less than a reasonable doubt but more than a preponderance of the evidence Used in parental termination cases juvenile delinquency cases Up to the law making body to decide its use Differences between criminal and civil cases 1 The right to remain silent 2 Right to counsel In a civil case you have no right to counsel In a criminal case you do