By Nirupam Deo
Published On : August 18, 2021 17:00 IST
Introduction
Court Cases that deal with disputes relating to money or violation of personal rights between private people or private businesses are termed as “Civil Cases”.
A Civil Case inaugurates when a private person brings upon action in the Court of law for the damage suffered by him on the account of another person or businesses’ actions.
The person who appeals to the Court is termed as the plaintiff and the person against whom the suit is filed is called the defendant. The plaintiff files a complaint stating the facts and theories as to where he feels violated.
For Example:
Mr. A and Mr. B argued over the unintended dent given by Mr. B on Mr. A’s car. Mr. A beat-up Mr. B for the same reason. In this Case, Mr. A can bring a suit against Mr. B claiming damages for causing a dent in his car. Likewise in this Case Mr. B can initiate a suit against Mr. A for causing damage to his body.
How can the Plaintiff seek relief?
The plaintiff can ask for relief in various ways. Some common ways for asking for relief are as follows:
- If the plaintiff has suffered because of the action of the defendant:
If the suit is successfully appealed in such a Case, the plaintiff can be compensated in monetary terms as proportional to the damages suffered by him.
For example – In the former Case Mr. A can ask for the damages suffered by his car due to the actions of Mr. B or Mr. B can ask for damages suffered by his body on account of Mr. A.
- Asking for Declaratory Judgement:
A Declaratory judgment is a crucial judgment from a bench distinguishing the legal relationship between the groups and their privileges in an issue before the court.
Commonly, a group will initially bring an aggrieved letter before seeking a Declaratory conclusion from a court. A Declaratory judgment does not furnish any authority.
Nonetheless, in different phrases, it asserts the court’s definitive impression heeding the distinct essence of the Legal matter without expecting the groups to take any step.
Accordingly, a party can implore for a declaratory statement without the trial being learned by the Judge wholly basing the thought on how the lawsuit seems at first glance.
- Asking for Injunction:
In law, an injunction is an order by a court to one or more of the parties in a Civil trial to refrain from doing, or less commonly to do, some specified act or acts.
The usual purpose of an injunction is to preserve the status quo in situations in which further acts of the specified type, or the failure to perform such acts, would cause one of the parties irreparable harm (i.e., the harm that cannot be adequately remedied by an award of monetary damages).
Thus, injunction is another tool to prevent a forewarned act that has a high probability of taking place in the absence of the injunction.
For example, Mr. Z is a celebrity who is being stalked in a nasty manner by a fangirl Ms Y, Mr. Z can appeal for an injunction to prevent Ms Y to gravitate around 200 metres wherever he is. This will ensure no harm is caused to Mr. Z on account of Ms Y.
The Court must reach a certain conclusion of the Case. This is to ensure justice to the victim and to establish faith in the law. The Judge based on facts reaches a certain conclusion, which is termed as a Judgement or decision.
The parties are given a free pass to reconcile the dispute to their Civil understanding and take away the suit at any time they deem fit. Parties are not obligated to attend any judicial process once both of them have agreed to rest things off.
In Case no amicable reconciling is reached by the parties, the court has to take a decision which is to be abided by the parties which are usually in the form of monetary gains from the Defendant to the Plaintiff.
Civil Cases are very common occurrences of daily life. They cover everything from False imprisonment, fraud, emotional distress, Invasion of privacy, Car or bicycle accidents, Medical Malpractice, Slip & Fall, Defective product that causes an injury, Animal attacks.
What are the types of Civil Court Cases?
Civil courts cover a wide range of cases some of them are illustrated as follows:
- Landlord Tenants claim:
The disputes arising between tenants and landlords come under the ambit of Civil jurisdiction. Matters like delay in payment, firing tenants without proper reason, breach of duties, fallibility in case of security deposits are dealt with under such claims.
- Tortious claims:
Tortious claims cover the wide proximity of Civil cases. A tort is a Latin word that means twisted or wrong.
Tortious acts are wrongs done by a person to another in way of causing damage to the person, their property or reputation. It covers a variety of cases like battery, assault, negligence, fraud, defamation, malpractices, being a few of its examples.
- Equitable claims:
An equitable claim is a decree required by the Court of Law to accentuate any special activity or abstain from performing a special action. It has some economic characteristics as well.
A Plaintiff who pursues fair consolation is begging the Court for an Injunction. An Injunction is a Court Order obliging a party to do or abstain from doing a restricted act.
A Court bestows an Injunction to stave off a prospective destructive action, instead of compensating for a prior trauma or to furnish consolation from damage for which a grant of money injuries is not a reasonable solution, or for which an economic value is absurd to compute.
Hindering society from demolishing acreage, not allowing exchange of a special interest, etc are it’s substantially.
- Breach of contract claims:
These claims come into action in cases of people breaking their ends while a contract is signed between the parties. When they fail to comply with their promise without satisfactory excuse the court has every right to impose a penalty.
For example, A, a car seller sells a car on the promise of payment of instalments from B. B stopped paying instalments after a certain point of time, B is liable for penalty under breach of contract claims.
What is the procedure of Civil Case Adjudication?
Civil cases proceed based on the money involved in the case. Owing to that faculty the proceedings can take place in claims court, district court, or justice courts on basis of the type of money involved in the case. Every Courtis distinct in its own ability to function.
The development of lawsuits can be summarised in a particular manner:
- Pre-filing Stage:
At this juncture, the dispute has commenced and parties are trying to reconcile the situation, negotiate find a middle ground and gather relevant information against each with each other
- Pleading Stage:
Now the case has officially been taken to the court. One party has appealed against the other party in the court. The other party has filed a response against the plight of the complaint
- Discovery Stage:
The parties have exchanged the relevant information. They now know the correct assessment of each other including both the positive and negative aspects.
- Pre-trial Stage:
The parties have gathered information, evidence, witnesses against each other. The arsenal for an impending war is prepared. Now the parties try to reconcile for one last time or go straight away under the premises of Courtto solve matters on hands.
- Trial Stage
The case is brought to court. The testimonies go through the test of time. The evidence and arguments are verified. Based on the circumstances, the events, the proof, the case is decided. The Judge reaches a particular Judgement.
- Post-trial Stage:
At this point, the grieving party can appeal against the Judgement and the winning party might call for the collection of the Judgement.
Proceedings in Civil court take these basic routes in ascending fashion. The stages don’t overlap and the parties can bedisjunct at any point during the development of these stages.
Conclusion
Civil Cases are a very common occurrence of common day life and taking probability every person enters into Civil Cases at least once in their lifetime, therefore, knowing about them is not optional but a mandatory criterion for even a layman.
Millions if not billions of Civil Cases are filed each year. Almost every household goes through Civil forebodings. Civil Cases have been a huge relief for Civil people who have suffered injuries from other private individuals.
Before the advent of Civil Law culture, it was easy to inflict pain on another human and get away with it for it not being harsh enough to be classified as a “crime”.
But after the election of the Civil Code, it becomes a reliant code to keep society in check. It has been a huge relief to various sections of Society.
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