It’s May! Well, it’s halfway through May, and so in my infinite wisdom and general niceness, because I’m simply one heck of a guy who cares about those lowly law students, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a bit of a primer on a key difference in law that most people don’t understand. Hell, I’ve met lawyers that don’t really understand it. I know that normal people who get accused of a crime can just hire a marietta lawyer to do all the work for them so they don’t need to know these technicalities but for a lawyer not to know the difference? That’s a red flag! It’s because the difference that we’re talking about here is the difference between criminal culpability and civil liability, and the difference between what criminal intent and civil intent are.
Have I gone long enough without cussing that it won’t show up on the article previews in social media? Thank God. Alright, listen, if you’re a lawyer and you don’t already know this, hand in your law license. There is literally no reason for you to be practicing law. No reason, whatsoever. This is some basic ass stuff, like, so basic we’re talking “pumpkin spice latte wearing ugg boots” levels of basic. There’s absolutely no reason a practicing attorney shouldn’t already be aware of this first-year-of-law-school mess, but it was requested by a reader that I dig into the difference between the two, and that’s what we’re going to do today: the difference between civil liability and criminal culpability.
But before I even start to talk about that, the difference in the state of mind needed and the types of stuff that happens, we gotta make sure the non-lawyers out there understand the difference between criminal and civil, just as much as the lawyers in helltown ohio do. And that means, of course, that we’re going to end up doing a Lexplanation (you like that? I like it. It’s a portmanteau of lex, the Latin for law, and explanation, the English for “talking slowly and loudly to those who don’t understand).
So, I don’t know guys, go get some coffee or something and see what Popehat is up to? He’s normally got some decent stuff on his site. I’ll be over here forcefeeding basic legal knowledge to muggles and walking malpractice suits.