Rights and duties of victims in criminal cases
You become a victim of a crime and you are harmed: What can you do? What can you do? And what, if anything, should you do? This article discusses step-by-step the various victim statutes and their additional rights and obligations.
A crime gives rise to two issues. On the one hand, you have the criminal action which is exercised by the Public Prosecutor's Office; on the other hand, harm results in a civil action which can be exercised by the victim himself. The current Code of Criminal Procedure provides for different victim statutes and as the statute, different rights and obligations open up. It is like a kind of staircase where, as you climb up, you have an increasingly stronger position as a victim.
Right to information
Initially, it is important to mention that as a victim, you are not necessarily also a party to the criminal case. Every victim is entitled to proper and careful treatment. They can go to the victim welcome center. A justice assistant there will continue to assist and inform you throughout the legal proceedings. He or she will also inform you about the different positions you can take as a victim. Every victim has the right to be notified of the day, time and place of the public hearing, regardless of the adoption of a specific statute.
Aggrieved person
In the next step, you can register as an "aggrieved person" with the public prosecutor's office or at the police secretariat. You can make this declaration yourself or through a lawyer appointed by you. This statute, in addition to the general right to be notified of the public hearing, also grants a right to the assistance of a lawyer, the right to add documents to the case file, the right to inspect the case file and the right to take a copy of the criminal record. You will also be notified about the decision to dismiss and the reason for it, about whether or not to open a judicial investigation and the determination of the court day. Therefore, if you do not register as an aggrieved person, you have no right to know about the dismissal decision.
Civil partisanship
Then, as a third step, you can file a civil suit. This can only be done as a direct victim, i.e., you must be aggrieved, and you must take the initiative to do so yourself. You can make a civil claim in two ways. When the criminal action already exists, you can join your civil action to the criminal action before the investigating judge, the investigating courts or the sentencing courts. If the criminal action has not yet been filed, you can file it immediately with the civil action. This is done through the direct summons or a civil action before the investigating judge. A direct summons means that you instruct the court bailiff to summon a named person to court. This is common for relatively simple cases. In criminal cases, direct summons is not possible. Once you have made yourself a civil party, you become a full litigant. Consequently, you get the same rights as the indicted defendant. As a civil party, you are entitled to the same rights as an aggrieved person and, in addition, you are also entitled to request the lifting of certain measures and additional acts of investigation. If the investigation lasts longer than one year, you can also bring the case before the Indictment Chamber. The only disadvantage you may face as a civil party is that you may be ordered to pay court costs.
Do you have questions about this matter? Contact our specialists via info@bannister.be or via 03/369.28.00. Our team is always ready to help you further.
