Burglar Bob breaks into Vince Victim's house. Bob steals a flat-screen television and laptop and does a significant amount of damage to the property before he leaves. Fortunately, Vince has a state-of-the-art security system. It captures excellent images of Bob, who is soon caught by police. Assume that two legal actions follow, one civil and one criminal. Who will be responsible for bringing the civil case?

When Bob the Burglar broke into Victim Vince’s house, he stole items including a flat-screen TV and a laptop. Along with the theft, Bob the Burglar inflicted a heavy amount of damage on the property. Vince happened to have a security system put in place that was able to capture images of Bob committing the crimes that evening. As a result of the crimes that have been committed by Bob the burglar, there are a few actions that will need to take place so that justice is served. There will need to be a civil lawsuit held between Bob and the Victim Vince as well as a criminal lawsuit between Bob and the state.

The party that is responsible for bringing the civil case to court would be the victim, Vince, and his lawyer.

The likely outcome of the civil trial if the jury believes that Bob is guilty of burgling Vince’s house would be the awarding of money to Vince for damages and pain and suffering that may have been caused because of the crime.

The party that is responsible for bringing the criminal case is the government, which will be the prosecuting party against Bob the Burglar. The outcome of the criminal trial if the jury believes that Bob is guilty of Burgling Vince’s house is jail time and possible fines. Fines that are collected as a result of any criminal cases go straight to the state as opposed to the victim.