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Criminal proceedings are court proceedings instituted by the prosecution against an accused person after his arrest and before any appeals. Criminal proceedings are instituted or commenced to deal with criminal matters only. It is worth mentioning at this point that there is a revertible presumption of law that an accused person is presumed until proven guilty in a competent court of law. The accused person is therefore taken various steps in order to determine his innocence or guilt. (Peter, 2004)
Petty criminal offenses do not involve a lot of procedures. The accused is required either to plead guilty in which case he is fined or plead innocent in which case he has made to appear before a court of law and evidence adduced determines his guilt or innocence. There are however two major categories of criminal offenses known as misdemeanors and felonies. Both are complex in nature but differ in the severity of punishment or sentence awarded.
Misdemeanors are criminal offenses that are not considered to be very grave by the low and therefore punitive measures taken on those who commit misdemeanors are less severe. Felonies on the other hand carry very heavy punitive measures as they are considered very serious in the eyes of the law. Crimes like robbery with violence, murder, manslaughter, and treason to mention a few are considered to be felonies. (Criminal Procedure Act)
There are various steps that are followed by the prosecution while instituting criminal proceedings regardless of whether they are misdemeanors or felonies. The steps are mentioned briefly below to give an oversight of what actually goes on in criminal proceedings. They include booking which includes entering all the details of an accused in a record. The second step is when the accused person is arraigned in court to answer to charges which he accused of. He is required to give a plea of guilty, not guilty, or novo contender which means the accused person remains silent and waits for the court to make its final decision on the matter. Other steps include bail or detention, preliminary hearing, trial, sentencing, fine/bail, and finally appeal. ( Criminal Procedure Act)
Civil proceedings on the other hand are the proceedings instituted to deal with various matters that are civil in nature. There are four fundamental rules of pleading that must be observed and strictly followed in any civil proceedings. They include: plead facts and not law, plead facts and material facts only, plead facts and not evidence and facts should be clear and concise. (Rhee, 2005)
It is important to distinguish these two very distinct areas of law. This paper specifically focuses on these two distinct yet very important areas of law. The paper majorly discusses the rules of disclosures in both areas.
In criminal law, the rules of disclosure are very clear. A prosecutor in any criminal proceedings must bring to the disclosure of the accused person any material that is to be used in the proceeding which is not in the knowledge of the accused. It is also a general provision in criminal proceedings materials are not disclosed if they are in the public interest. (Civil Procedure Act)
Normally the prosecution is given a limit within which to make disclosures. As already mentioned, that although the provisions of the law sometimes place a duty on a person to make disclosures there is also the need to protect sensitive information that is in the public interest. (Rhee, 2005)
Usually, the responsibility or burden of non-disclosure may be imposed on either the prosecution or the defense but majorly it is imposed on the prosecution side. The prosecution is however charged with a greater responsibility of disclosing all materials and material facts relevant and necessary to the case in question.
In civil proceedings, there are some disclosures that are required to be provided during the court proceedings. Disclosure basically means making the other party aware of the existence of some particular information or material which was not in the knowledge of the other party. Usually, in civil proceedings, the most common disclosure made is that of the existence of particular documents. The law interprets that the term documents also includes but is not limited to electronic documents. (Civil Procedure Act)
The documents that are usually disclosed in civil proceedings include those that the party making the disclosure wishes to rely on in making his argument. The law’s position is that a person is in possession of documents if he has a right to the documents or physically possesses the documents or so is his agent. In civil procedure, the kind of disclosure that is required by law is standard disclosure. This basically means a reasonable kind of disclosure. In this disclosure, a party discloses only the documents which he wishes to rely on. The position of the law is that any document in the control of a party gives that party discretion to produce the document. (Civil Procedure Act)
It is clear from the above discussion that whether in criminal or civil proceedings disclosure is of utmost importance in any court proceedings. It is imperative therefore that the various rules and provisions that apply to both civil and criminal proceedings be strictly observed in order to ensure that justice is meted effectively.
Works Cited
Hungerford Peter. Criminal Litigation and Sentencing. New York, Routledge Cavendish, 2004.
Rhee Van. European Traditions in Civil Procedure. England. Intersentia No, 2005.
Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act. 1996. Chapter 25.
Civil Procedure Act 1997. Chapter 12.
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