Civil Liability for Abuse of the Criminal Process: Downstream of Three Rivers

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If the criminal justice system malfunctions and causes someone damage, when can the victim sue the person responsible?

To this question, the traditional answer is “almost never. If the malfunction consists of imprisoning someone who was innocent, or prosecuting them without due cause, there is no civil liability except for acts done in bad faith; liability for merely negligent behaviour is excluded, on grounds of public policy. Where the malfunction consists of failing to catch a criminal who celebrates his continued freedom by causing further damageor in releasing one with similar effectthe same is true a fortiori, because the case is further complicated by issues of causation and novus actus interveniens. Thus in Hill v. Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [1989] A.C. 53 the House of Lords ruled that the Yorkshire police, however negligent, were not liable for their failure to catch the Yorkshire Ripper.