1. Civil Law
Person vs. person law

2. Plaintiff and Defendant
The party filing a complaint is the plaintiff.
The accused party, which is the defendant, must respond by filing a written reply to the charges.

3. Lawsuits are NOT criminal cases
It is not against the law to not clean up spilled lemonade
The police are not involved and there are no criminal charges against the mall
But the mall still SHOULD HAVE cleaned up the mess since it put shoppers at risk

4. In civil law, cases may be brought before the court regarding:
- Family
- Property
- Contracts
- Torts

5. FAMILY LAW
Involves divorce and/or child custody. For example, Samantha has two sons and one daughter with her husband Chris. They have decided to divorce, but need to figure out who gets the house as well as how to share weekends with the kids.
Question 3: Do you think a divorce can be smooth without a lawyer? Why or why not?

6. PROPERTY LAW
Generally resolve damage to something that someone owns. For example, Steven was just learning to drive and was trying to parallel park. He got frustrated and accelerated onto his neighbor's newly landscaped lawn. The neighbor sued. Steven for the damage to her lawn
Question 4: Has anyone ever damaged anything you own? If so, how did you resolve it?

7. CONTRACTS
A legally binding agreement. For example, Lindsey signed a contract to pay rent for an apartment. When she failed to pay her rent for 3 months, her landlord took her to court and she had to pay everything that she owed.

8. TORTS- a civil wrong
Negligent Tort = the failure to do something that should be done.

9. Negligent Tort Example
For example, Ms. Liebeck bought a hot coffee from a drive through at McDonalds in New Mexico. Ms. Liebeck placed the cup between her legs and removed the lid to add cream and sugar when the hot coffee spilled out on her lap causing third-degree burns on her groan and inner thighs. Ms. Liebeck sued McDonald’s for a negligent tort because she believed McDonald’s engaged in reckless behavior.