June 25, 2013

Malicious Prosecution Law Receives Dramatic Changes

This post was written by: Aston Bond Law Firm

A recently announced decision made by the Privy Council has made dramatic changes to the law regarding tort of civil malicious prosecution within English law. A malicious prosecution is labeled as a legal process initiated for no probable cause other than the personal attack of an individual or to discredit that individual or an individual company. The recent decision now enables a victim of such a malicious prosecution to claim and recover financial damages caused by this libel.

The decision taken by the Privy Council now enables an individual or company to re-gain damages caused during this malicious prosecution if the original “malicious case” put against them was considered unsuccessful and seen as an attempt of defamation.

Beforehand an individual or company was limited to the damages it could reclaim financially; however, this new announcement will allow an individual or company to sue for all foreseeable financial damages that the previous “malicious prosecution” may have caused. These financial damages may include the loss of business or the unwillingness of others to employ that individual because of this recent wrongful prosecution.

For the average individual or business this means that they now have the legal right to recover all economic damages which may have been caused from a wrongly initiated prosecution within England. This is only if the original prosecution was seen as malicious by the court and was unsuccessful.

For solicitors this now allows their clients to push for a prosecution against an individual or company if their previous prosecution was seen as malicious by the court. Our solicitors can offer further information relating to malicious prosecution law.

Ashton Hudson, Online Marketing Executive

ahudson@astonbond.co.uk