Criminal law and civil law

[Lawrence McGinty]

We all know that a higher court decision in civil law is binding on a lower court but do criminal offences/decided cases carry any weight in the civil court?

 

Criminal cases don't actually set a precedent unlike a civil case.

 

However, it is illegal, for eg, to turn one's house into a pub without being licensed, a criminal offence.

 

Yet if I didn't know that, as a customer, and was misrepresented by the bogus bar owner that he was running a legit establishment and took my money, could I quote his criminal wrongs in a civil court if I decided to sue him for misrepresenting what he had sold me????

 

It hasn't happened but it's an interesting dispute to resolve for my studies.

[Ganymede]

Just to clarify, in your example you paid for a beer and drank it etc but later found out that the "pub" did not have the correct license to serve alcohol and you want to sue for your money back?

 

I'm not sure the license issue would have an affect on the contract and you wouldn't have suffered a loss that I can see.

[mjt2013]

Criminal cases don't actually set a precedent unlike a civil case.

 

Yes they do. You may want to look at the voluminous case law referred to in Blackstones or Archbold. Almost every phrase in the criminal law has been clarified or explained by a higher court and those explanations are to be followed by the lower courts.