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.
Milford is a borough in Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,104 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pike County. It is served by the Delaware Valley School District. Milford was the home of noted forester and conservationist Gifford Pinchot. A former Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, his home Grey Towers has been under the control of the U.S. Forest Service since 1963. It now serves as a training and educational center for future conservationalists and interested tourists. Milford served as setting for a number of silent films directed by D.W. Griffith in the early 1900s. Milford has been home to the Milford Science Fiction Writers Workshop since 1956, founded by Damon Knight, James Blish and Kate Wilhelm, all residents of Milford at the time. Milford is also home to Pike County Arts and Crafts, an arts education organization that was chosen by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as winner of the 2007 Pennsylvania State "Creative Community Award.". Since 1950, Pike County Arts and Crafts has also hosted an annual art show each July in Borough Hall. An important American artifact is housed in the Pike County Historical Society Museum in Milford - the Lincoln Flag, which is the actual flag that had draped on President Abraham Lincoln's booth at Ford's Theatre the night he was shot. The flag was bundled up and placed under the President's head, and still bears his blood. The flag was kept by stage manager Thomas Gourlay, and eventually passed down to his daughter Jeannie, an actress who had been in the play, Our American Cousin, at the theatre that night; she moved to Milford and the flag was donated to the museum after her death. In September 2007, Frommer's Budget Travel named Milford, Pennsylvania, second on its list of "Ten Coolest Small Towns in America". According to the various welcome signs on the outskirts of the town Milford was founded between 1733 (route 206/209 north) and 1798 (route 6 south).