Can you be compensated for wrongful detention or house arrest?

Verified 21 January 2021 - Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister), Ministry of Justice

Yes, you can be compensated if you have been remanded in custody or placed under house arrest without being ultimately convicted. If you wish to be compensated, you must make a claim.

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If there's been a trial

To claim compensation, you must have been pretrial detention or a house arrest under electronic surveillance and be relaxed or acquitted.

Before making the request, you must wait until the decision of release or acquittal is final, i.e. there must be no further possible recourse.

You can also seek compensation if you have been convicted and cleared of an indictment on a review proceeding.

FYI  

you cannot be compensated after a remand and conviction, even if the conviction is not a firm sentence and you have not been forced to return to detention.

Your claim may be denied for several reasons, the main ones being:

  • You were not convicted solely because you were found criminally irresponsible for a mental disorder
  • You were not convicted because you intentionally accused yourself or allowed yourself to be accused wrongly, to protect someone who is the real perpetrator
  • Your detention was justified by another independent ground of the case in which you were acquitted or acquitted

Absence of trial

To claim compensation, you must have been pretrial detention or a house arrest before receiving a non-suit pronounced by the investigating judge.

FYI  

it is not possible to obtain compensation after police custody, even if no charges were ultimately brought against you.

The compensation paid is used to compensate for the material damage (loss of salary...) and moral damage (removal from the family...) that you suffered during your deprivation of liberty.

You can claim full compensation for your loss.

You can request a forensic expertise to help you assess the harm. The application must be made to the first President of the Court of Appeal competent to deal with the claim for compensation.

You can also contact directly an expert, whether or not they are on the national list drawn up by the Court of Cassation or one of the lists drawn up by the Courts of Appeal. If the expert is not on a list, he or she will be required to take an oath.

Who shall I contact

You must address the claim to the first president of the Court of Appeal on which the court or judge who has ruled that the case has been dismissed, acquitted or acquitted is dependent.

The request must be sent as request. The request must be signed by you and his lawyer, and it must be delivered against receipt or sent by registered letter with request for notice of receipt to the Registry of the Court of Appeal.

You must send the request within 6 months after the decision of non-suit, release or acquittal has become final.

You must specify the following in the query:

  • Statement of Facts
  • Amount of the repair requested
  • Particulars relevant to the examination of the application (date, nature and court which gave the decision)
  • Supporting documents and evidence
Who shall I contact

You can ask a lawyer for help.

Who shall I contact

An appeal may be brought against the decision of the first President of the Court of Appeal.

The appeal must be sent within 10 days of notification of the decision, before the National Commission for the Reparation of Detentions of the Court of Cassation. The appeal may be made by the parties to the dispute, namely the litigant and the State, represented by the judicial officer of the State Treasury.

Who shall I contact

The decision of the National Commission for the Reparation of Detentions is not subject to appeal.