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.
Temple is a town in Franklin County, Maine, United States. It is located at the end of Maine State Route 43 (Temple Road), one of only two towns in Maine to be situated as such. The population was 572 at the 2000 census. The town contains a school (now the Temple Historical Society), a no longer in use store (Hodgkins Store, built in the early 20th century, which also houses a post office), a theatre (Temple Stream Theater; formerly the Congregational Church), a derelict baseball field, and a small fire station. What is now Maple Street was formerly named Cowturd Lane, due to "the smell of manure, fresh from cows walking in the road on their way to the barn and back, hanging in the air like swamp gas. " A Soldier's Son: An American Boyhood During World War II was written by Temple native and still part-time resident John E. Hodgkins about life in the town before, during and after the conflict. It was published in 2006 by Down East Books. Bill Roorbach, another Temple native, who wrote the foreword to Hodgkins' book, released his own book on Temple Stream, entitled Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey, in 2006.