Civil wrong

A civil wrong or wrong is a cause of action under the law of the governing body. Tort,breach of contract and breach of trust are types of civil wrong. Something that amounts to a civil wrong is said to be wrongful. A wrong involves the violation of a right because wrong and right are complementary terms. A statement that an act complained of is legally wrongful as regards the party complaining implicitly includes a statement that the act complained of prejudicially affects the party complaining in some legal right.

The law that relates to civil wrongs is part of the branch of the law that is called the civil law. A civil wrong is capable of being followed by what are called civil proceedings. It is a misnomer to describe a civil wrong as a "civil offence". The law of England recognised the concept of a "wrong" before it recognised the distinction between civil wrongs and crimes (which distinction was developed during the thirteenth century).

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Wrongful death claim

Wrongful death is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. Under common law, a dead person cannot bring a suit, and this created a loophole in which activities that resulted in a person's injury would result in civil sanction but activities that resulted in a person's death would not.

The standard of proof in the United States is typically preponderance of the evidence as opposed to clear and convincing or beyond a reasonable doubt. In Australia and the United Kingdom, it is 'on the balance of probabilities'. For this reason it is often easier for a family to seek retribution against someone who kills a family member through tort than a criminal prosecution. However, the two actions are not mutually exclusive; a person may be prosecuted criminally for causing a person's death (whether in the form of murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, or some other theory) and that person can also be sued civilly in a wrongful death action (as in the O.J. Simpson murder case). Wrongful death is also the only recourse available in the United States when a company, not an individual, causes the death of a person; for example, historically, families have tried (both successfully and unsuccessfully) to sue tobacco companies for wrongful deaths of their customers.