When something happens to you, you quickly discover that the main character in criminal proceedings is someone else. The offender has a defence lawyer, the state has a prosecutor, the court has its schedule. The injured party sometimes feels like a witness in their own story.
It does not have to be that way. The injured party has rights of their own in the proceedings and can take an active part. It is just that usually nobody says so out loud.
Your rights as the injured party
- Compensation for damage and non-material harm directly in the criminal proceedings, without a separate civil action. One court, one set of proceedings.
- To inspect the case file, propose evidence and take part in the main trial.
- To have a representative who acts for you, watches the deadlines and does not have to tremble while doing it.
Watch the clock
The claim for compensation must be raised at the main trial at the latest, before the court begins taking evidence, and the motion must make clear on what grounds and in what amount. Anyone who misses this has to sue separately, with a new court fee and a new round of waiting. The Constitutional Court declined to help even an injured company that was late through no fault of its own.
What can be done
Quantify the damage, prepare the motion and be represented. Victims of certain crimes are entitled by law to free legal assistance; whether that applies to you can be found out right at the start.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 43 tr. řádurights of the injured party; the claim for compensation must be raised at the main trial at the latest, before the taking of evidence begins
- § 206 tr. řáduat the main trial the court establishes whether the injured party has raised a claim
- § 5 zák. o obětechparticularly vulnerable victims and free legal assistance under the Victims of Crime Act
Case law
- 4 Tz 66/2005 (Nejvyšší soud, 28. 6. 2005)a motion for compensation made only after the taking of evidence has begun is not timely (§ 43(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure)
- II. ÚS 2141/20 (Ústavní soud, 12. 8. 2020)a late claim cannot be cured, even where the delay occurred through no fault of the injured party
- 4 To 548/2002 (Nejvyšší soud, 22. 8. 2002)the motion must make clear on what grounds and in what amount the claim is raised; only then does the injured party have a right of appeal
Related cases
- Poškozená firma uplatnila škodu pozdě. Ne vlastní vinou. Přesto. 2020 (in Czech)
Related articles
A different situation?
- You or someone close to you has been detained
- Pre-trial detention is looming, or someone is already in it
- A police summons has arrived
- Criminal complaint: you want to file one, or one has been filed against you
- You have been charged with a criminal offence
- A penal order has arrived
- Alcohol or drugs behind the wheel, driving ban
- Plea agreement, conditional discontinuation
- House search
- European arrest warrant, extradition abroad
- Charged with embezzlement
- Disorderly conduct: a brawl, a pub, the street
- Dangerous threats and stalking
- You drove while banned from driving
- Charged with bodily harm
- Damage to property
- Violation of the inviolability of the home
- Defamation
- Conditional release from prison
- Negligent homicide: a fatal accident
- Credit fraud and subsidy fraud