The procedure of being a complainant in criminal matters

27 June 2022 1064

The first step in opening a criminal case would be to attend to your nearest police station and report whatever case you’re opening at the receiving police official. The receiving police station is the police station which has jurisdiction over the particular incident, this is now where the incident occurred.

A statement will then be taken by the police officer and you shall be allocated with a cas number. Bear in mind that this is not a case number but a cas number. The case number to the matter shall only be allocated once the docket reaches court.

Thereafter the docket shall be allocated to an investigating officer (police officials in private clothes) and he/she shall notify the accused person or go get the accused straight without prior notice in case of serious crimes and detain same if necessary.

In this instance, you are the complainant and is basically represented by the State, in the form of the Prosecutor. Therefore you need not see nor consult an attorney unless you are intending to also institute civil action which is related to the criminal matter. Then it might be essential to no notify your legal practitioner in that regard, but he will not be representing you during the criminal proceedings. 

Sometimes a lot of people would attend court right after they opened a case as a result of sms they received from the Investigating officer (I/O) in relation to the matter but only to be told to leave they are not needed. This is normal as usually when you open a case you would get a cas number from the investigating officer. That cas number shall be aligned with a case number when it gets to court and after each and every court appearance the investigating officer shall update you as the complainant in the matter by way of sms or even telephonically. These do not mean that you have to go to court. You will only be subpoena’d by the investigating officer, which subpoena is a legal document, which will instruct you to attend court once it reaches trial stage, because that testimony will be the most essential as you are the person who actually initiated the case.

When you open a case at the police station, the police should not wave you away and subsequently advise you on what to do but they should just do their job and open the said case, however it also depends on what do they advise you on. Sometimes people tend to go to court with civil matters and the police cannot assist you in that regard. They will subsequently refer you to an attorney. However if you tell the police that somebody has hit you on or so, they should not advise you to open a protection order but just do their job and advise you subsequent to that.

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