Topic :
Discuss the sources of funding for civil cases and consider the problems that may be encountered by a person wishing to bring a claim.
The civil law
The civil law was first used in Europe inside the structure of the late Roman law, and the center components of the law are systematized into a referable framework which fills in as the essential wellspring of law. Another basic feature of the law is the fact that, the civil law can be contrasted with common law systems as its intellectual framework is based on the judge-made decisional law. A civil lawsuit is different from other lawsuits such as criminal lawsuit considering that it provides a platform through which people in a state or country can seek to hold others liable for something wrong committed against them. When an individual successfully files a case where another person is held liable for wrongdoing, they are compensated for the harm resulted from the defendant’s actions or inaction (Friedenthal, Miller, Sexton, & Hershkoff, 2013). Most of the civil cases involve private wrongs such as rupture of agreement, infringement or carelessness and implementing common remedies, for example, pay, harms, and directives in the case that the defendant is found guilty. This study will attempt to identify and describe sources of funding for civil cases as well as the challenges encountered when bringing a claim.
The sources of funding for civil cases
A civil lawsuit begins when a person files a lawsuit by giving an a fitting notification of the underlying lawful activity to another company, a court or an authoritative body. However, the case cannot go on without the plaintiff paying the fee as required by the law. In the case that the plaintiff is unable to pay the legal fees set by the law of the country; he or she can record a claim to continue in forma pauperis. The judge has the ability to give or deny the demand to continue in forma pauperis. In the case that it is granted, the fee is waived (Bloom, 2014). Paying for a case is a major issue in any civil case process. The expensive nature of these cases means that the financing of the case is as important as the remedy the plaintiff seeks from the defendant. However, the disputing parties are often encouraged to resolve their differences outside the court.
If the dispute cannot be resolved outside of court, the case is often decided by a judge but at a cost. The general rule of the civil case states that the loser of the case pays the winners to cost. Notably, the court has power, and it is flexible enough to determine when one party may be responsible in whole or in part of the other party’s costs. Apart from paying the attorney’s fee, the plaintiff has to pay the filing fee before the case can commence, copying fees, expert witness fee, court reporter fee and all the costs that are necessary to stage and hold a successful trial. Fortunately, one can recover all the money used in the trial as part of the judgment if one wins the case against an opposing party. Apart from incurring the cost of the trial proceedings, the plaintiff may also incur the cost of hiring an attorney thus making the attorneys fee the largest component of the plaintiff’s practical expense in pursuing a lawsuit (Sime, 2014). The attorney’s fee is often considered separately from the costs when it comes to court proceedings.
The problems that may be encountered by a person wishing to bring a claim
Usually, there is a large amount of money and time spent on the administration of civil cases across the country. Civil justice is as important as any other form of justice, but does not get as much attention as the criminal justice since the public safety issues are not as apparent as those of a criminal case. However, both knowingly and unknowingly, the civil case affects most of the people in the country considering that it helps to protect their properties, contracts, personal injuries and any other individual daily operations.
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Filing a civil claim in a court of justice
Of the challenges encountered while filing a civil claim in a court of justice is the high cost of financing the case and the complexity of the legal system. As stated earlier, civil cases are funded individually which makes it difficult for low-class folks who have no enough money to cater for all the court proceedings (Contini & Cordella, 2016). Apart from the filing fee, copying fee or expert witness fee, the plaintiff incurs the attorney fees, making a civil case one of the most expensive cases in the country. Unlike a criminal court, the cost of court procedures and processes are incurred by the person filing the case. There is the need for the government to ensure that civil courts are adequately and efficiently funded to make it easier for the low-income families to seek justice whenever their rights are infringed and improve their performance.
Another problem in these cases is the limited number of judges and magistrates available to preside and oversee the trial process and procedure. Therefore, these cases end up taking more time than necessary as the judges have to listen to other cases too. This is the primary reason why individuals are always encouraged to solve their differences outside the court to reduce the number of civil cases that a judge have to preside and in the process reduces the amount of time taken to decide a case. Comparing the ratio of the number of civil cases brought in a court and the number of judges that are tasked with the duty and responsibility of presiding over these cases, it is difficult for the justice system to be effective and efficient as needed.
Another major problem is the slow motions and continuances of cases by the judges. It is no secret that cases in a civil court are hardly managed efficiently since the judges do not provide enough oversight and sorting cases and issues in the court procedures. Notably, they are hardly involved early in cases until the end of the case which in turn increases continuances. These continuances are expensive for the clients as they have to hire their lawyers more than once while at the same time, forcing the witnesses to prepare more than once (Goldman & Hughes, 2015). In general lack of efficiency and proper oversight of the whole process increases the cost of the whole process.
From the above-detailed research, it is correct to state that civil procedures and process are important to any other legal system in the country. However, there is a great difference between them considering that the plaintiff has to incur the cost of filing a civil case unlike other forms of legal system. Apart from incurring the cost, plaintiffs have to encounter major problems such as expensive procedures, inefficient and ineffective oversight from the judges as well as a limited number of judges in civil courts as they seek justice.
References
Bloom, L. H. (2014). The Civil Rights Cases. Do Great Cases Make Bad Law?, 137-150. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765881.003.0008
Contini, F., & Cordella, A. (2016). Law and Technology in Civil Judicial Procedures. Oxford Handbooks Online. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199680832.013.47
Friedenthal, J. H., Miller, A. R., Sexton, J. E., & Hershkoff, H. (2013). Civil procedure: Cases and materials.
Goldman, T. F., & Hughes, A. H. (2015). Civil litigation: Process and procedures.
Sime, P. S. (2014). 2. Funding litigation. A Practical Approach to Civil Procedure, 10-20. doi:10.1093/he/9780198714484.003.0107
