civil procedure: an overview Broadly speaking, civil procedure
consists of the rules by which courts conduct civil trials.
"Civil trials" concern the judicial resolution of claims by one
individual or group against another and are to be distinguished
from "criminal trials," in which the state prosecutes an
individual for violation of criminal law. "Procedure" is to be
distinguished from "substantive law" in that substantive law
defines the rights and duties of everyday conduct, such as in
contract law or tort law. A procedural system provides the
mechanism for applying substantive law to real disputes. Such a
system sets guidelines as to what information the judge or jury
receives, how that information is to be presented, and by what
standards of proof (e.g., "beyond a reasonable doubt," "by clear
and convincing evidence," "by a preponderance of the evidence")
the information will be adjudged. An effective procedural system
ensures that similar cases will be treated similarly by the
courts. Although the major