On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 5:38 PM, Luke-Jr [email protected] wrote:
Your assumed implications are your own. I meant nothing more than what I said,
But what you said isn't correct. There's no such thing as "civil charges" -- there are "civil disputes" or "civil trials" in which a judge is asked to determine if someone wronged someone else by causing (and this is a legal term) "harm" to another party. This doesn't necessarily mean that anything illegal took place.
If your dog keeps pooping in my yard, there's nothing illegal about that. However, I can sue you in civil court because you have caused "harm" to me (allowing your dog to pollute my property).
Civil trials are used to determine "who was injured" (another legal term) and to asses compensation (yet another legal term), not to determine if any laws were broken. No one goes to jail or gets a criminal record for losing a civil dispute.
You can read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_trial