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.
Shubuta is a town in Clarke County, Mississippi, United States. Shubuta was incorporated in 1865. Although Shubuta had become a trading post community in and around the 1830s, it was not until the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed that the area was available for settlement by European Americans. Shubuta started growing more rapidly when the railroad came through in the 1850s. It was at one time the largest town between Meridian and Mobile, with people coming from forty miles around to shop at the many mercantile businesses. The first record of the word Shubuta appears on Bernard Roman's Map of 1772, a copy of which appears in Riley's History of Mississippi. Riley wrote the name as "Chobuta", which means smoky water in the Choctaw language. The first newspaper in the area was the Mississippi Messenger, established by Judge Charles A. Stovall in 1879. The population was 651 at the 2000 census.