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A civil trial is conducted as a way to enforce or protect private rights. A civil case may be disposed of through a variety of means, including a jury trial. There are several outcomes that may be reached through a civil trial. A trial court may reach a verdict and impose monetary damages on a party to compensate for loss and, on occasion, punish a party for wrongdoing.

In a civil trial, a judge or jury examines the evidence to decide whether, by a “preponderance of the evidence,” the defendant should be held legally responsible for the damages alleged by the plaintiff. A trial is the plaintiff’s opportunity to argue his or her case, in the hope of obtaining a judgment against the defendant. A trial also represents the defendant’s chance to refute the plaintiff’s case, and to offer his or her own evidence related to the dispute at issue.

Civil trial law and criminal trial law present two different sets of rules used to assign guilt or fault. The difference between these two sets of rules represents the difference in consequences between a criminal and a civil trial. In a criminal trial, the jury or the court decides the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The stigma of criminal guilt has a serious effect on the defendant; thus, the rules in a criminal trial are structured in a manner that tightly restricts what evidence may be used and puts the burden of proof at a higher level than that of a civil trial. Civil trials assign fault for a specific act. Since the consequences of a civil trial are typically measured in dollars, civil trial rules allow more evidence and require a lower burden of proof.

The right to a jury trial in a civil suit in federal court is guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution. Most state constitutions also afford such a right, at least for some cases. In criminal cases, the right to a jury trial can be found in Article III, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution and in the Sixth Amendment. That right is binding on the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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