A festive reminder to dot your i’s and cross your t’s when starting a private prosecution. Just in time for Christmas, and so you can prosecute Santa/Jeff Bezos for a disappointing haul, the Justices’ Clerks’ Society (JCS) has issued new guidance on the perils and pitfalls of starting a private prosecution. For many, this will […]
The Queen on the application of Smith-Allison v Westminster Magistrates’ Court (Defendant) and Mark Burn, Max Bull (Interested Parties) [2021] EWHC 2361 (Admin) In a recent decision, the High Court upheld a claim for judicial review of a legal adviser’s decision to refuse to issue a summons in a private prosecution. The judgment emphasised […]
Private Prosecutions Blog: Tuesday 9th March 2021 The Government’s response[1] to the Justice Select Committee Report on Safeguards in Public Prosecutions[2] was published last week. The Justice Select Committee Report itself was published on 2 October 2020 and explored in depth by Gavin Irwin in a previous publication here. The Government’s headline response to the […]
2020 was a year book ended by key judgments on costs in private prosecutions in which the courts were keen to emphasise the public interest in individuals and companies being able to pursue private prosecutions. At the start of the year, in Fuseon Limited v Senior Courts Costs Office [2019] EWHC 126[1] (Admin), Lane J […]
The Criminal Justice Act 1993 provides for wide rules of jurisdiction in prosecutions for acquisitive offences such as theft and fraud. To give one example, in a conspiracy to defraud, any act in furtherance of the conspiracy occurring in England and Wales (E&W) will give the court jurisdiction to try the whole conspiracy. The Act […]
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