Claiming damages over a wrongful arrest.
The law protects everyone from any malicious and false reports made by other people to the Police against you. This is because an arrest causes shame and disrepute in society, not forgetting loss of liberty!
So let’s say you have been accused of committing a crime and you are acquitted in Court and you feel as if your arrest and or subsequent prosecution were just made to fix you or to bring your name to shame. You may claim some money as damages from;
- The Police for arresting you if, the arrest was unlawful.
- Alternatively, you can sue the person who made a malicious report against you to the police so that they pay you some money or so that they publish an apology to you in a newspaper that circulates the area.
If you are suing the Police all you need to win your claim is to prove that your arrest and subsequent prosecution were unwarranted and therefore illegal.
If you are suing an individual you need to prove that the person who made the report against you, only did it to torment you with the pain of being in custody and going through prosecution when they knew that the report they made is false. Casually-speaking “that they just wanted to fix you”
The author of this snippet is Simon Flemming Mutandi, a lawyer who writes in his personal capacity. The purpose of these pieces is to share insights into the law. The language and content are simplified to give the reader a digest of his/her rights at law. You may contact the author on 0783475020 or email simonflemming1@gmail.com.
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