RETAIL LAW

Retail Law

Retail Law

Difference Between Civil Law And Criminal Law

In order to understand how Consumer Law affects our everyday lives, it is important to understand the difference between Civil and Criminal Law. Our legal system generally divides our laws into two categories; civil and criminal. Each serves a very different purpose:

Civil Law

Civil Law deals with the rights and duties of one individual to another. One of the main areas of civil law that applies to consumers is the law of Contract. The law will determine whether a promise is legally enforceable and what its legal consequences are.

For example: - If a consumer made a contract with your business and then you let them down, perhaps by not delivering goods on an agreed date, then they would look to the civil law to help you. Similarly if you did work for a consumer and then had trouble getting payment from them this would be a civil matter.

A breach of the civil law will be dealt with by an action being brought by a claimant (plaintiff) against the defendant in the County Court or the High Court.

In a civil action the burden of proof is upon the claimant who must prove their case "on the balance of probabilities". You will see that this is a lower burden of proof than in criminal case.

Criminal Law

Criminal Law is concerned with establishing social order and protecting the community as a whole. It gives us a set of rules for peaceful, safe and orderly living. People that break these laws can be prosecuted and if found guilty they could be fined or sent to prison, or both. Most prosecutions are brought by the Police, for offences like murder and theft - but they are not the only ones who enforce the criminal law.

Trading Standards Officers, Environmental Health Officers and Customs and Excise Officers can also prosecute offenders.

Many of our consumer laws are criminal in nature, for example: - traders can be prosecuted for serving short measure, or charging more than the advertised price, or watering-down alcohol or milk. Problems like these would be investigated by local Trading Standards Departments on behalf of all the people living in the area. A breach of the criminal law can lead to a prosecution in the Magistrates Court or the Crown Court.

The criminal law is therefore about punishing offenders and 'stopping them from doing it again'. It is not generally about dealing with individual rights. However the court may award a victim compensation at the end of a case, if the defendant is found guilty. This may save the victim from bringing a civil claim.

In a criminal case it is up to the prosecution to prove the offence "beyond all reasonable doubt". In other words if there is any doubt in the minds of the Magistrates or the Jury (in the Crown Court) the defendant must be found 'not guilty'.

Provisions of Consumer Law

The United Kingdom, as member state of the European Union, is bound by the ...