Public versus Private Law
1. One Sentence. Public law addresses the relationship between persons and their government,
while private law looks at dealings between to persons.
D. Criminal versus Civil Law
1. Civil Law spells out the duties that exist between persons or between citizens and their
government.
a. One Example would be whether there was a valid contract between two parties.
2. Criminal Law looks at crimes against the public. Criminal law is always public. In such a case,
the government is attempting to penalize guilty persons.
a. Examples of Criminal Offenses include (1) Burglary, (2)Murder, (3) Rape and (4)
Assault and Battery
IX. REMEDIES AT LAW VERSUS EQUITABLE REMEDIES
A. Remedies at Law are usually monetary remedies.
1. Their Purpose is to return the parties to an equal footing.
B. Sometimes, remedies at law is inadequate. This is when Remedies in Equity come into play.
C. Equitable Remedies come into play when:
1. Damages cannot make the injured party whole.
2. Damages are speculative and uncertain
3. Insolvency of the person committing the act
4. The harm is so major it can not be fully compensated by money.
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E. Three Primary forms of Equitable Relief
1. Specific Performance. Specific performance is a remedy by which one party to a contract is
ordered to perform according to the contract's terms.
a. Example. An example of this would be where you contracted with the executor of
Graceland to Purchase Elvis' Cadillac. IT'S A ONE OF A KIND ITEM
2. Injunction. This is where a person wants to prevent the occurrence of a certain activity.
a. Example. For example, your neighbors have excessively loud parties and you want to
stop them.
3. Rescission. Rescission is the remedy whereby the original contract is considered to be voidable
and thus may be rescinded.
a. In other words, rescission puts an end to the transaction and leaves the parties as though
the contract had never been made.
X. HOW TO FIND CASE LAW
A. State Court Decisions. At a state level, the usually which are usually published are the appellate
decisions. The appellate decisions are the decisions of the State's Court of Appeals and the State's
Supreme Court.
1. How Do You Find Such a Case. After the decisions are published, they can be found by what is
commonly referred to as "citing." Each state has its own state reports.
a. Additionally, the National Reporter System divide the states into regions and report
cases by region. "NORTH CAROLINA IS IN THE SOUTHEAST REGION."
(1) Griffin v. Griffin, 45 N.C. App. 531, 263 S.E.2d 39 (1980).
(2) Jackson v. Gastonia, 247 N.C. 88, 100 S.E.2d 241 (1957).
(A) Note, two cites are given for each of these cases. This is called
"parallel citations."
(B) Note, the "2d" indicates the case was reported in the second
series.
B. Federal Court Decisions.
1. Federal Trial Court Opinions are reported under West's Federal Supplement (F.Supp.)
2. Federal Court of Appeals decisions are reported in West's Federal Reporter (F. or F.2d)
3. Supreme court decisions are reported in:
a. The Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)
b. The United States Reports (U.S.)
c. The Lawyers' Edition of the Supreme Court Reports (L.Ed.)
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4. Examples.
a. North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet, 286 US 420 (1932).
b. Internal Revenue v. Indianapolis Power and Light Company, 110 S.Ct. (1990).
c. City Gas Company of Florida v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 689 F.2d 943 (11th
Cir. 1982).
* 11th Circuits denotes that this case was decided in the US Courts of Appeals for
the 11th Circuit.
XI. ANALYZING A CASE. The author states that each case presented in the text is summarized for ease of reading.
A. Believe Me, reading a court case is not that simple.
B. The cases in the text have the following components:
1. The Case Name and Cite
2. A brief summary of the background and facts
3. The decision and the rationale behind it.
C. Decisions and Opinions. If you ever get a chance to read an original court decisions, you will come
across one of four terms in the opinion
1. Unanimous Opinion is the First. This is when all of the judges agree.
2. Majority Opinion. When there is not a unanimous opinion, a majority opinion is written. This
outlines the views of the majority of the judges on this particular issue.
3. Concurring Opinion. Concurring opinions are usually written when a judge agrees with the
decision for but for a different reason.
4. Dissenting Opinion. This is sometimes called the "minority opinion." This is written by the
judges who disagree with the majority opinion.
