Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim. For instance, if a car crash victim claims damages against the driver for loss or injury sustained in an accident, this will be a civil law case. Civil law courts provide a forum for deciding disputes involving torts (such as accidents, negligence, and libel), contract disputes, the probate of wills, trusts, property disputes, administrative law, commercial law, and any other private matters that involve private parties or organizations including government departments. The objectives of civil law are different from other types of law. In civil law there is the attempt to right a wrong, honor an agreement, or settle a dispute. If there is a victim, they get compensation, and the person who is the cause of the wrong pays, this being a civilized form of, or legal alternative to, revenge.
West Point is a town in White County, Arkansas, United States. David Hamilton, 74, has been mayor "since 1972 except for two years he missed for cancer surgery," according to an article in the Searcy, Arkansas newspaper The Daily Citizen ("Mayors bring politics, leadership to ground level" by Warren Watkins, 27 January 2007). “My great-grandfather landed at West Point in 1865 from a steamboat, and homesteaded 160 acres (0.65 km) of land by building a log house,” Hamilton said. The same article gives the West Point population as 208. Incorporated in 1858, West Point marked its sesquicentennial in 2008. According to local legend, cited by the mayor, the town was in the running with Little Rock to be the site of the state capitol.