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Criminal law, unlike civil law, involves crime. Although there are specific differences between the two, the ordinary “man in the street” actually knows more about criminal law than civil law, thanks to the often sensationalist reporting of famous, or more likely infamous criminal trials. Then there are the novelists and authors who specialize in writing crime novels, criminal law is actually portrayed as being exciting and even rather romantic . . . the reality is often very different, although the life of a criminal law defense attorney is anything but boring.

You’ll see from the picture on the left that criminal law is a pretty complicated business, there are lots and lots of criminal laws which a criminal law attorney will need to know about (or look it up in a book). We’ll simplify the business of criminal law as much as we possibly can.

What is Criminal Law

Criminal law must involve a crime. Serious crimes like rape, murder, manslaughter, burglary, arson, robbery and assaults with weapons are called felonies, crimes which are not quite so serious are called misdemeanors – stuff like traffic violations. If you attempt to commit a crime then you are committing a crime, if you are with somebody else who is committing a crime, even if you are not committing the crime yourself, in criminal law you are guilty of a crime.

If you’re insane you are not capable of committing a crime, well, you are of course capable of committing a crime but in criminal law you are not held responsible for that crime. Before you get excited, however, insanity does not include drunkenness or being out of your head cos you’ve been smoking something!  Depending on the state where you live, young people below the age of 15 or 16 years cannot commit a crime either, it’s called juvenile delinquency which isn’t a crime so isn’t dealt with by criminal law.

If you commit a crime or get tangled up in some criminal law investigation then you’re gonna need a specialized criminal law attorney, the best you can find, your life and your freedom may depend upon it.

Somebody like Atticus, that’s who you need . . .

Criminal Law Punishments

In contrast to civil law, if you are found guilty of a criminal law then you will be punished. The guilty defendant may be punished either by being incarcerated in a prison or jail, a fine which must be paid to the government or, in really exceptional cases – the death penalty, the severity of the punishment depends on the severity of the crime.  These punishments are supposed to prevent people from breaking criminal laws, although the jury is out on the effectiveness of the theory. General speaking people either break a criminal law on impulse (no rational thought goes into it at all) or they believe that they’ve planned the whole operation so well and covered their tracks that they aren’t in danger of being caught by the police. If this is the case, how can the thought of punishment deter people from breaking criminal law in most cases?  The old saying “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” never seem to occur to the people who break the criminal law until after the event when it’s far too late and they’ve been found guilty as sin!

Fantastic film . . . makes one cry . . . make one think about the next issue with criminal law too . . .

Criminal Law – Burden of Proof

In criminal law the burden of proof lies with the state, the state has the job of proving that the defendant really is guilty of committing the crime, and until that happens then the defendant must be assumed to be innocent huh, try telling that to some of the newspapers. If, however, the defendant is claiming insanity, then it is up to the defendant to prove in criminal law that they actually are insane.

You can always find somebody, somewhere, to write a song about anything . . . if you just look long and hard enough!