Legal advice and assistance on all aspects of both criminal law and criminal procedure. Advice and legal services on criminal charges, drunken driving charges, bail applications, court processes, etc.

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If a person is certain that justice has not been done, there is always the option to follow the route of Private Prosecution

We had an interesting question sent to us yesterday by email.

 “In September 2017 my youngest son was assaulted in a bar and he laid a charge against the perpetrator. We have now been told by the investigating officer that the senior public prosecutor has declined to prosecute. My son wants to proceed and we would like to know how one goes about a private prosecution. Can you possibly advise as to whether or not this is a possibility and, if so, what is the process and how would he go about it?”

Oscar Pistorius initially appeared in a local magistrate’s court, his bail hearing was in the regional court and his murder trial in the High Court.

As we have had quite a few queries over the last week about aspects of Criminal Law; we have decided to do a few blogs on various aspects of Criminal Law.

Firstly; it is important to understand that there are two large bodies of our law.

1. Criminal Law and
2. Civil Law.

Broadly speaking a criminal case is one where the accused is charged by the State in respect of a crime and Civil Law is the law as it is applied to different people and legal entities. To use an example for illustration: A is charged with Drunk Driving. The case is “The State (the Government, in fact, on behalf of the people of the country) versus A. “This is a criminal case and is heard in one of the criminal courts in the country.

People get arrested in South Africa every day.

Normally the SAPS will only arrest a person when a serious crime is involved, but this is not always the rule and people are arrested even for what one would think are minor offences like shoplifting of reckless driving.

If this should happen to you; what do you do?

 The reality is that the arrest of a person doesn’t necessarily only happen to violent or hardened criminals

Below is an email to The Legal Advice Office from last Thursday.

 “ The son of a friend of mine was arrested two weekends ago In Rondebosch (Cape Town) for drunk driving and this has been quite a traumatic experience for her and her family to get their son released on bail. I have to admit I know nothing about bail or the bail process and I am worried that I won’t know what to do if, heaven forbid, my own child be arrested on some future occasion.

Please advise as to how bail works and what one needs to know and do in these circumstances.”