Particulars of the Crime
| Published date | 01 March 1962 |
| Author | F. G. Hails |
| Date | 01 March 1962 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6203500205 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
F. G. HAILS
H.M.
Coroner,
Stoke-on-Trent
Particulars
of
the
Crime
Wasted Words
At one time the statement of the crime charged was, in English
law, a highly technical piece
of
complicated legal verbiage,
and
in
1915, by the Indictments Act, Parliament sought to simplify matters.
Although in the magistrates' courts matters were
not
so complex,
there was a certain prolixity, and the Magistrates' Courts Rules,
1952, r. 77, also tried to introduce simplification. Unhappily, old
habit still persists: it is largely the fault of clerks to justices
but
senior
police officers who persistently use old forms
of
information in
applying for process, or old forms
of
charge on the charge sheet,
must bear some blame. Thousands of unnecessary words are written
and typed in court process daily: the accumulated time wasted up
and
down the country must be considerable. Wasted time means
wasted
man
power, and at a time when police
man
power is short,
this is a matter
of
the utmost importance. To see how time may be
saved it is necessary to consider the law in some detail.
The Law
The
first statute is the Indictments Act, 1915: lest it be thought
that
this statute is the sole concern
of
lawyers
and
employees
of
the clerk
of
the peace, we would explain
that
this is the basis of
modern criminal pleading,
and
that
the most
important
section
runs as follows:
Section 3 (1);
"Every
indictment shall contain and shall be sufficient if it
contains, a statement of the specific offence or offences with which the
accused person is charged, together with such particulars as may be necessary
for giving reasonable information as to the nature of the charge."
March-April 1962
III
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