【www.pindukj.com--涉外文书】
from： http://www.fww114.com/classroom/flyy/
Courts hear two kinds ofdisputes：civil and criminal.A civil action in-volves two or more private parties，at least one ofwhich alleges a violation of a statute or some provision ofcom-mon law.The party initiating the law-suit is the plaintiff；his opponent the defendant.A defendant can raise a counterclaim against a plaintiffor a cross-claim against a co-defendant，so long as they are related to the plain-tiffs original complaint.Courts prefe to hear in a single lawsuit all the claims arising from a dispute.Busi-ness litigations，as for breach ofcon-tract，or tort cases，where a party alleges he has been injured by anoth-ers negligence or willful misconduct are civil cases. While most civil litigations are between private parties，the federal government or a state government is always a party to a criminal action.It prosecutes，in the name ofthe people，defendants charged with vio-lating laws that prohibit certain con-duct as injurious to the public welfare.Two businesses might litigate a civil action for breach ofcontract，but only the government can charge someone with murder.
The standards ofproofand poten-tial penalties also differ.A criminal de-fendant can be convicted only upon the determination of guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”In a civil case，thplaintiffneed only show a preponderance of evidence，a weaker formulation that essentially means more likely than not.A convicted criminal can be imprisoned，but the losing party in a civil case is liable only for legal or equitable remedies，as ex-plained below.