Criminal Information - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition criminal-information

Definition :

Criminal information, a proceeding in the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice at

the suit of the king,without a previous indictment or presentment by a grand jury. Criminal informa-tions are of two sorts: (1) Ex officio, which is a formal, written suggestion of an offence com-mitted, filed bby the Attorney-General, or, in the vacancy of that office, by the Solicitor-General, in the King's Bench Division of the High Court, without the intervention of a grandjury. It lies for misdemeanours only, and not for treasons or felonies. The informationis filed in the Crown Office without the previous leave of the Court. (2) Information by the Master of the Crown Office, which is filed at the instance of an individual called 'the relator,' with the leave of the Court; and usually confined to gross and notorious misdemeanours, riots, batteries, libels, and other immoralities. Criminal informations may also be filed against judges and magistrates for illegal, unjust,and wilfully oppressive conduct if arising from corrupt andmalicious motives, and not from mere error of judgment. The procedure on criminal information is regulated by the Crown Office Rules, 1906, rr. 35-39, whichprovide that the person procuring an information must file a recognizance in 50l. to prosecute it, that no application for a criminal information against a justice of the peace as such must be made without notice to him, etc. See Odgers on the Common Law.