What is the biggest misconception about law?
There are many misconceptions about law, but one of the most fundamental deals with the differences between criminal law and civil law. Most people don’t realize that criminal law and civil law are two completely different branches of law that have different rules. For instance, you may recall that in the O.J. Simpson case, there were two trials. In the first trial—the criminal one—he was found not guilty of murder. However, there was a second trial—for a civil case brought by the heirs of the two victims. In that trial, the heirs won a $25 million verdict against him. The reason that there could be two trials for the same conduct is that one was for a criminal case and the other was for a civil case; the two types of cases have different rules, different burdens of proof, and different ways to proceed.
