To be honest, when most people turn their minds to the contemplation of law in this country, they will nearly always immediately think about criminal law. This is because this is the branch of law that we tend to hear the most about through the media. But as I have just stated above, criminal law is exactly that: a mere branch of law.
If you were ever looking to study law at a more advanced level, it is worth noting from the start that criminal law would not feature anything like as prominently as you may first think. There is so much more to law than this and all other branches of law that do not fall under the criminal categorisation, will fall within civil law.
To gain a good appreciation of all of the types of law that are in operation in our legal system, click on to the internet and check them out. Probably one of the most common areas of law that an individual would need to hire a solicitor for during their lives is land law. This is likely to be due to some form of conveyancing transaction that needs to be sorted out: whether you are buying or selling a property and/or land.
The laws of contract and tort are also very commonly sought in this country: we have all heard about those companies advertising to the people who may have been involved in an accident in the past 3 years and this comes under the law of tort.
So, now that it has been spelt out to you, you can probably see how criminal law only makes up a tiny percentage of our legal system. From the workings of our constitution, to EC law, there are far more facets to the realm of civil law.