What is the difference between Civil and Criminal proceedings?
Civil law is concerned mostly with disputes between individuals or corporate bodies. Cases must be proved on the balance of probabilities (more than a 50 per cent probability that the defendant is liable). Criminal law is a dispute between an individual and the state.
The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply.
The majority of civil law jurisdictions follow a system of adjudication, in which judges undertake an active investigation of the claims by examining the evidence and preparing reports the crown court takes no sides. In criminal law the Crown has the right to prosecute citizens for criminal offences. The Crown makes criminal law, although of course it is drafted by Government and passed by Parliament before it goes to the monarch for "rubber-stamping" as law (the process is called ' Royal Assent').
