SDJ ASSIGNMENT 3

ASSIGNMENT 3 Assignment 3: Written assignment 1. What are the differences between criminal and civil cases? (200 words, 5 marks) Answer: criminal cases are cases that involve the state, which means that there is a state prosecutor involved in such cases and it always ends up in court. Under criminal cases, we have public law and private law. Public law entails of the relationship between the state and an individual (offender) who breaks the law with regards to the society. Whiles private law deals the relationships between two or more different individuals. An example of criminal case is the case of S v Zinn an important case in South African criminal law where by an illiterate man named smith partnered with Zinn who always borrowed huge loans continuously from money-lending institutions. Civil cases are cases that do not involve the state, which means there will be no state prosecutor in regards to these cases. These are disputes that involves two individuals namely the plaintiff (the one who feels he or she has been ill treated or bad mouthed) and the defendant (the one who caused such action), to throw more light on, not all civil disputes or cases necessarily ends up in the court of law, sometimes individuals involved are advised to use or come up with alternative ways to resolve their disputes in “a less adversarial or opposing process”. Examples of civil cases are; personal injury, battery, negligence, defamation, medical malpractice, fraud etceter