Civil Litigation

What is civil litigation?

Litigation refers to the process of settling a dispute through the court system. Broadly speaking, civil litigation includes any litigation issue that is not a criminal charge. Cases in civil litigation can concern any matter that arises between two parties. A breach of contract, a personal injury claim, an employment matter, or a business dispute such as the intellectual property will all be heard in civil court. A civil litigator will not just be involved in arguing cases in a court of law.

Litigation also includes a number of related processes including document drafting, due diligence, examinations for discovery, and many more things, which go into building a court case. While the process can vary by province, each province will have a generally similar system.

Courts decide cases based on a concept known as the “burden of proof”. The burden of proof in civil litigation is known as the “balance of probabilities”: essentially, if after hearing evidence from the plaintiff (the party who filed the claim) and the defendant (the party being sued), the judge or jury decides that it is more likely than not that the defendant did what the plaintiff alleges they did, then the plaintiff will win.

Awards in a civil lawsuit are generally monetary damages; in very unique circumstances, the court may order “specific performance”, or a direction to the defendant to act in some specific way.