Civil Action Forms
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What is civil action?
In broad terms, a civil action is a legal dispute between two or more private parties regarding compensation for damage (material or moral) caused by a wrongful act or inaction. In contrast to a criminal process, a civil lawsuit refers to private law and aims to defend civil rights without leading to a prison sentence.
Such litigation may consider disputes between different parties: two or more individuals, an individual and a legal entity, between several companies, individuals and non-profit organizations, etc. It covers a vast number of questions including contract and property disputes, personal physical or psychological harm lawsuits, and sometimes even complaints against the city. Thus, civil action can be brought over a breach of a business contract or a partition agreement, complaint for injunctive relief and damages, defamation, battery, and so forth.
A party who brings a complaint to the court regarding their rights being broken is called a plaintiff; the party responding to the claim is a defendant. The plaintiff, no matter the subject of the dispute, files a written claim to the court providing facts regarding their damage or injury, describes the conditions of getting that harm, and asks the court for compensation.
What are the stages of civil action?
Every dispute in civil action contains three main stages: pleadings, discovery, and the trial itself. Litigation begins with the pleadings when a complaint or a petition is made. At this phase, the plaintiff, or the complaining party, files their claim to a trial. Once the court clerk signs it and the copy of the claim is sent to the defendant, the civil process starts. The defendant has some time to answer the claim or to make a counterclaim against their opponent. Parties may make clarifications and change their claims.
After the parties finish their claims and file the lawsuit, it comes to the discovery stage. Complaint with discovery is the longest phase of the lawsuit as parties request from each other evidence to examine. Finally, during the trial, the plaintiff and the defendant present their proofs and arguments to the court before it makes a verdict. Sometimes, civil actions don’t end with a court decision as the losing party may be dissatisfied with the verdict and request an appeal.
Civil litigations involve enormous paperwork to be done. airSlate SignNow provides you with a form catalog that contains thousands of state-specific legal templates concerning civil claims. Easily find forms and instructions for filing a civil action in your local county court, complete them electronically, and legally eSign them in clicks.