What Is Civil Litigation?

I recently decided to do some research about what civil litigation is because I am a party to a lawsuit. What I found out is that there are two branches of the justice system – criminal and civil. Criminal court determines punishments that include jail time and charges can only be brought by the state, whereas the civil branch of the court system determines damages which are monetary in nature, and the case can be brought by any entity (for example, a corporation or a private citizen) against any other entity, where there are grounds to file suit.