Throughout my 14-years in the legal profession, I’ve been both a civil litigator and a criminal defense attorney. The two areas of practice are vastly different.
Civil litigation is, without a doubt, more adversarial. It’s not uncommon for lawyers embroiled in a civil lawsuit to threaten each other with ethics complaints or requests for court sanctions. Such behavior is almost unheard of among criminal attorneys.
I believe the cut-throat attitude exhibited by some (but certainly not all) civil litigation attorneys has a couple causes.
First, many civil litigators don’t get paid unless they win their case. So the stakes are extremely high and, consequently, so is the hostility.
Second, civil lawyers rarely—if ever—meet face to face. Most criminal lawyers practice in a few courts on a regular daily basis. They constantly see the same prosecutors, defense attorneys, and court personnel. So they are less inclined to burn bridges. Many civil attorneys, on the other hand, file lawsuits almost anywhere in the Commonwealth. After all, most civil hearing take place on zoom. So civil lawyers are less likely to know each other or meet in person.
Next, civil proceedings move at a glacial pace compared to criminal proceedings. This is because the criminal caseload is exponentially higher. Consequently, judges are incessantly nagged by their superiors to resolve criminal cases in a timely manner. That’s not the case with civil proceedings which can drag on for years before a date is set for trial. It may take a civil litigator three or four years to get a favorable judgment. Once the judgment is obtained, it may take several years more before payment is received—if payment comes at all.
The last major difference between civil and criminal law is the complexity of the issues. Most criminal cases are fairly straightforward. Go to any district court criminal session and you see drunk drivers, prostitutes, domestic abusers, drug addicts, etc.. These people and their alleged crimes are almost invariably simple. It’s the complete opposite in civil cases. Even the most basic debt-collection or breach-of-contract lawsuit involves paperwork, ledgers, emails, and innumerable other documents that must be read and absorbed by the attorney before he files his complaint.
Regardless of their differences, both areas of practices can be interesting and rewarding.