Charles M. Stam is a trial attorney at Zehl & Associates in Houston, Texas, knowledgeable in common and civil law. Common law relies on case law and judicial opinions for legal judgments, whereas civil law is based on codified statutes. Around 80 countries use common law systems and about 150 have civil law systems, though many employ a blend of both.

1. Charles Stam

2. Introduction
Charles M. Stam is an accomplished attorney who practices trial law with
Zehl & Associates in Houston, Texas. Among his other areas of professional
interest, Charles Maurice Stam is well versed in the intricacies of both
common law and civil law.

3. In countries around the world, legal systems tend toward one or two
general approaches: the common law approach or the civil law
approach. The primary difference between common law and civil law
lies in their basis for making final legal judgments.

4. In common law countries like the United States, case law predominates.
This means that published judicial opinions from former cases play a
primary role in the formation of new judicial opinions. Civil law
countries, by contrast, rely primarily on codified statutes when forming
decisions.

5. Today, approximately 80 countries worldwide are home to common law
systems, while approximately 150 are home to civil law systems. This
may be a bit of an oversimplification, however, because most countries
have systems that employ a mixture of both common and civil law
elements.