Civil trial: Encyclopedia - Civil trial

A civil trial is a trial between private parties carried out to resolve a dispute between the parties. The term is distinguished from criminal trials, in which the government is seeking to punish an accused person for a violation of the law. A government entity can sue or be sued as a party in a civil trial, but has no greater rights than any other private party. Most frequently, civil trials are brought to resolve questions arising under the law of contract, tort, and property. Each party will present evidence in support of th

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Civil trial", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki