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.
Wooster (first syllable with the vowel of wood) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio approximately 50 mi (80 km) SSW of Cleveland and 35 mi (56 km) SW of Akron. Wooster is noted as the location of The College of Wooster. Wooster was established in 1808 by John Bever, William Henry, and Joseph Larwill, and named after David Wooster, a general in the American Revolutionary War. The population was 24,811 at the 2000 census, but has since grown to over 26,000. The city is the largest in Wayne County, and the center of the Wooster Micropolitan Statistical Area (as defined by the United States Census Bureau in 2003). Wooster has the main branch and administrative offices of the Wayne County Public Library. Wooster is the birthplace of physics Nobel Prize winner and chancellor of Washington University, Arthur Compton and his brother, physicist and president of MIT, Karl Taylor Compton.