What is the Purpose of the Civil Justice System?
Cranston & Edwards PLLC — Morgantown, WV
The overarching goal of our legal system is to protect our communities. As attorneys, we make our communities safer places to live, work, and raise our families.
In the United States, we have a criminal and civil justice system. While the criminal justice system determines innocence or guilt and addresses legal offenses on behalf of governmental entities, our civil justice system determines liability and provides a means to settle legal disputes between citizens and other people or corporations.
Carelessness Destroys Lives
We are facing a serious epidemic of people misunderstanding the gravity of the impact of their actions. Many speed through red lights, dismiss car wrecks, and feel that these and other negligent actions are no big deal. In reality, carelessness destroys lives. It must stop.
Lawyers Advocate for Safer Communities
Unfortunately, many do not understand the intent of the civil justice system. They have a wrongful impression of lawyers. At Cranston & Edwards PLLC, our purpose and life’s work is to advocate for safer communities. We do this by holding people accountable for their actions in the only way that works — financially.
How Legal Action Improves Safety
We can understand how safety is improved through legal action when considering an example of negligent harm related to manufacturer product liability. For example, a popular manufacturer’s spring-like toy products were seriously (and needlessly) harming children when the ends of these metal toys caused significant eye damage. Despite being aware of this, the company did nothing to correct the design flaw responsible for causing the injuries. After being held financially accountable, the company corrected the flaw with a simple design adjustment to secure the metal tips of these toys. Now, kids are safer — and other companies are deterred from making the same mistake. That is our ultimate goal. Safety. If you believe you have been wronged, you have a Constitutional right to pursue a legal claim against the alleged wrongdoer in a court of civil law. This helps improve safety for all of us.
Types of Civil Disputes We Handle
At Cranston & Edwards PLLC, some of the types of civil action disputes we help our clients resolve include:
Personal Injury
Industrial Accidents
Nursing Home Neglect
Medical Malpractice
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Defective Products
5 Main Objectives of Civil Law
Morality — Accountability — Safety — Deterrence — Victim Compensation
Although the means of justice in civil cases primarily involves seeking financial compensation for injured victims, the actual intent of the civil justice system is far broader and multifaceted. The main objectives of the civil justice system include victim compensation, negligent conduct deterrence, holding wrongdoers accountable, promoting community safety, and upholding essential morality.
Victim Compensation
The civil justice system allows those who have been wronged to pursue reasonable financial compensation for harm. Monetary resources are vital to helping victims recover losses they would not have otherwise have suffered, rebuild their lives, and become whole.
Accountability
At Cranston & Edwards PLLC, we hold out-of-state insurance companies and other wrongdoers accountable for their actions. This helps deter similar conduct and is an essential part of making our communities safer. Whether injured by the negligence or misconduct of a fellow citizen or one of the most powerful pharmaceutical, energy, or insurance corporations in the world, the civil justice system provides victims a fair chance at justice.
Deterrence
Deterrence of negligent conduct is an important, but often overlooked, benefit of the civil justice system. Holding wrongdoers accountable for their actions can make them (and others) be more careful and avoid harming people in the future. When appropriate, punitive damages (large monetary penalties designed to inflict financial damage) may provide an additional measure to encourage parties to treat each other responsibly.
Community Safety
When citizens and corporations are aware that they will be held accountable in a civil court, they are more likely to act with care. This helps us avoid senseless harm, injury, and wrongful death. The civil justice system makes our communities safer by providing a constant level of liability protection for all citizens.
Morality
In the time before our civil justice system was in place, people had no recourse but to take justice into their own hands. Disputes were often settled with violence. Society was plagued with rampant crime and injustice, continual blood feuds and war.
Now, our civil justice system protects citizens’ rights and enforces order. It helps us resolve disputes fairly and peacefully, upholds social stability, and ensures contracts and agreements can be enforced. It limits government and corporate power and helps promote economic growth by ensuring fair business practices. The civil justice system generally promotes a more moral society by officially recognizing and promoting shared behavioral standards, rights, and responsibilities — and enforcing consequences for wrong actions.
Contact Cranston & Edwards PLLC
Morgantown Personal Injury Lawyers
Cranston & Edwards PLLC is a specialized personal injury firm based in Morgantown, WV. Our AV® Rated law firm works on a contingency basis for those who have been seriously injured or lost a family member from the negligence or fault of another. Contact our experienced personal injury lawyers for effective legal representation, more than 55 years of collective litigation experience, proven skills, and a track record of success. There are absolutely no legal fees until we win your claim. For a free case evaluation, contact us today at 304-296-3500.