There are two basic kinds of legal disputes: civil and criminal. In a civil case, one person files a lawsuit against another asking the court to order the other side to pay him money or to do or stop doing something. An award of money is called ‘damages’ and an order to do something or to refrain from doing something is called an ‘injunction.’
The person bringing the lawsuit is known as the ‘plaintiff’ and the person sued is called the ‘defendant’.
In criminal cases, there is no plaintiff and no lawsuit. The role of a plaintiff is occupied by a government prosecutor. Instead of filing a lawsuit (or equivalently, ‘suing’ someone), the prosecutor files criminal ‘charges’. Instead of asking for damages or an injunction, the prosecutor asks the court to punish the individual through either jail time or a fine. The government prosecutor is often referred to as ‘the state counsel’ or ‘prosecutor’. The person charged is called the ‘defendant’, just like the person sued in a civil case.
When a lawyer addresses a judge in court, she will always address the judge as ‘your honour’.
In legal opinions, however, judges will usually refer to themselves as ‘the Court’.
