Civil violations are frequently prosecuted in a different manner than crimes. It is not uncommon for a prosecution for a civil violation to be initiated after the violator has committed several civil violations. At the time that violator comes to court, the prosecutor may charge the violator with more than one violation. These violations may be used to enhance the violator's penalty if the violator is adjudicated as having committed multiple violations. Instead of using the prior conviction language explained above for committing multiple crimes, the bill specifies that enhanced penalties for civil violations may be applied if the violator has previously violated that statute or another statute, as specified.

The bill identifies those crimes that do not require a culpable state of mind as strict liability crimes as defined in Title 17-A, section 34, subsection 4-A. This distinction is not made for civil violations.

The bill includes language to make the statutes gender neutral and to correct and update grammar. "Exceeds" is changed to "more than," and "under" is changed to "less than." These changes are made for consistency and are not intended to be substantive.

The bill changes reference to all monetary sanctions authorized by law, including fines, forfeitures, penalties or surcharges imposed by the court for a civil violation, to "fine" unless the sanction is payable to an entity other than the State, in which case the sanction continues to be identified as a civil penalty. A general provision that indicates this change is added to Title 14. Current law distinguishes between monetary sanctions for civil violations based on the amount of the penalty. If the sanction is less than $1,000, it is called a civil forfeiture. If the sanction is more than $1,000, it is called a civil penalty. Because "forfeiture" frequently carries a different meaning under the statutes and because a distinction based upon the monetary amount of a sanction appears to be unknown to many and often used inconsistently even by those aware of the distinction, the bill instead uses "fine" to refer to all monetary sanctions for civil violations, just as the term is used for crimes. Again, the only exception to this in the bill is when the monetary sanction is to be paid to someone other than the State, in which case "civil penalty" continues to be used to distinguish to whom the sanction is paid.