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Our practice has for years been providing legal services in criminal matters and it has in recent weeks become clear that some procedures are not being explained to the client by some attorneys.

 

We have also been involved in some high profile matters that have been in the public media and dealt with matters where every move we make was of utmost importance. This is why it is important that those that do not have us present understand the HUGE undertaking and procedure that is ahead of them and that is why we thought this was a good topic for discussion.

 

When a person is arrested or warned to be in court, it all takes place in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act. No action can be taken that is not enshrined in this act. The fact is that arrest has one purpose, and only one purpose:

 

TO BRING AN ACCUSED BEFORE COURT 

 

This is typical of matters where it may be possible that the accused will attempt to evade his court dates, or the crime is so serious that the accused must be brought before court as soon as possible. 

 

The Court or the investigating offices(depending on the seriousness of the crime) can then fix bail and an accused may be released on bail, with a few exceptions such as where the accused presents a danger to society or the other way around as we have seen in news of late.

 

Once a matter is before court it falls to the state to prove their case. Matters are normally postponed a few times for further investigation or some other administrative reason and then the trial starts.

 

The state must prove all elements of the crime with which the accused is charged. This is important. The state has been offering accused persons deals on guilty pleas for years but this normally shows that the prosecutor does not feel he can prove all the elements of the crime. This is not always the case though and sometimes prosecutors are actually just giving some accused persons a second, third or fourth chance(this is because they are actually good people...mostly)

 

The version of an accused, if the state proves the elements of the crime, must raise a valid defence as to why the accused was doing what he was doing. This is typically self defense or sudden emergency or some other valid defence that may allow a person to infringe on another persons rights.

 

The reason why we state that the STATE MUST prove is that the accused job is to simply prove that his legal defence and version may reasonably, possibly be true. Thus, if it MAY have happened the way the accused version states and that version shows a valid defence. Then the accused is entitled to be found not guilty. 

 

Trials have two sides to them as well. One is the trial during which the versions are argued, cross-examined and pulled apart and the other is sentencing during which mitigation of sentence must be argued.

 

All the above goes to show that knowing is important because people are pleading to trials in which they have defences because of a lack of legal assistance

 

Our website has a lodge a query section and we invite you to always contact us if you have a query or even if you are just unsure of what to do or how to go about your defence. 

 

It sounds cheesy but justice really is the most important thing and is supposed to be equal for all. 

 

Don't become a statistic and as always our offices are available to assist in all criminal matters.

 

Have a great December and travel safely into 2018.

 

- Du Bruyn Attorneys