A civil plaintiff files a complaint against an individual, company, or government for alleged wrongdoing seeking compensation. The defendant is usually another private person or entity, but sometimes a government agency. Cases can go up to the national court system, affecting the general population. Governments can also file civil suits, such as for temporary injunctions.
The civil plaintiff is the party who files a complaint in a civil suit. In such cases, the plaintiff is typically an individual filing a lawsuit against an individual, company, or government for alleged wrongdoing. The civil plaintiff seeks compensation for the grievance, either in form or in money, property, or a legal settlement such as an injunction. This is different from a criminal prosecution, where the state or other local government acts as a prosecutor on behalf of victims of a crime.
A complaint filed by the civil plaintiff will result in a civil suit only if the dispute can be resolved privately and without criminal charges. The civil plaintiff is the accusing party, while the defendant is the defendant. The plaintiff is a private entity, an individual, a private company or a non-profit organization. The defendant in a civil suit is usually another private person, another individual, company or non-profit.
In some cases, a state, local, or national government may be the defendant in a civil suit. Cases where a government agency is the civil defendant are marked by disputes where a law or government process has possibly harmed a person or business, but not in a criminal way, nor necessarily in a way that affects the whole population. Sometimes, however, civil cases against government entities are challenged and work their way up to the higher court systems.
Depending on the country, cases can go as far as a national court system on appeal, where the decision can actually end up affecting the general population. A famous example of this is a US case called Roe vs. Wade, which was a civil lawsuit brought by Norma McCorvey, under the alias Jane Roe, against the state of Texas in 1973. McCorvey was seeking abortion rights. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court on appeal. The Supreme Court decision in Roe’s favor set a national precedent that guaranteed all women the right to seek an abortion.
Sometimes a public government can also be a civilian actor. For example, if a newspaper has sensitive material that the government does not want to publish, the government can file a civil suit in an attempt to obtain a temporary injunction. In this case, the government must file a civil suit; a criminal case would be inappropriate as the newspaper does nothing criminal by publishing material. It is then up to the presiding judge or jury to decide whether the government has just cause to delay publication.
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