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.
Garberville is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located on the South Fork of the Eel River 52 miles (84 km) south-southeast of Eureka, at an elevation of 535 feet (163 m). The population was 2,403 at the 2000 census. It is approximately 200 miles (320 km) north of San Francisco, California, and within a fifteen-minute drive to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and a sixty-minute drive to Eureka, the county seat. The ZIP Code is 95542. The first settlers arrived in 1853 to what was then named "Dogtown". The town was later self-named by its postmaster at the time, Jacob C. Garber. J.E. Wood laid out the town in 1862. The first post office in Garberville opened in 1874. Garberville is the primary town in the area known as the Mateel Region, consisting of parts of the Mattole and Eel River watersheds in southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties. Due to the distance of Garberville and other regional communities from their respective county seats of Eureka and Ukiah, there is a notable lack of mass transportation and other public services. A group of local residents once attempted to qualify a "Sequoia County" initiative to secede from both Humboldt and Mendocino with Garberville as the new county seat, although the campaign ended after they failed to gather enough signatures. Bioregional efforts continue with the recent formation of the Sequoia County Greens as a local Green Party chapter, which meets regularly in Garberville. There was also once an attempt to incorporate Garberville as a city, which was thwarted when county supervisors declined to take the first step with the formation of a Municipal Advisory Committee due to concerns over the associated costs. Garberville is home to both weekly newspapers in the Mateel Region, locally-owned The Independent and Redwood Times, run by Media News Group as a sister publication of the daily Times-Standard. The town also boasts the only movie house in the area, the Art-Deco-style single-screen Garberville Theatre. Garberville's town square hosts a Farmers' Market every Friday in summer and early fall. The Garberville Branch of the Humboldt County Public Library provides the only such service in the Mateel Region.