{"id":46008,"date":"2023-06-12T08:10:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/?p=46008"},"modified":"2023-06-12T08:10:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:10:08","slug":"can-one-be-charged-to-court-prof-ernest-ojukwu-san","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/can-one-be-charged-to-court-prof-ernest-ojukwu-san\/","title":{"rendered":"Can One Be \u201cCharged To Court\u201d? – Prof Ernest Ojukwu SAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

In connection with crime\/law many persons speak or write that \u201cMr A\/Mrs A was charged to court\u201d. I have just been reflecting on the correctness of the use of that phrase \u201ccharged to court\u201d or \u201ccharge to court\u201d. The correct phrase I learnt is that a person can only be \u201ccharged in court\u201d and not \u201ccharged to court\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201ccharge\u201d in connection with criminal law is used in two senses- one, as a noun and the other as a verb.<\/p>\n

As a noun, the Black\u2019s Law Dictionary defines \u201ccharge\u201d as a formal accusation of an offence as a preliminary step to prosecution. As a verb the Black\u2019s Law Dictionary defines \u201ccharge\u201d as \u201cto accuse (a person) of an offence\u201d. These definitions from the legal perspective are similar to the definitions provided in the Oxford Advanced Learner\u2019s Dictionary. Our Administration of Criminal Justice Act defines \u201ccharge\u201d (noun) as \u201cmeans the statement of offence or statement of offences with which a defendant is charged in a trial\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

When you charge someone in court it means that you have accused him formally by reading to him the allegations made against him or her. Once that is done, it means that the person has been charged with an offence. It would then likely not be correct to say that, that person was \u201ccharged to court\u201d. Surely that person cannot be \u201caccused to court\u201d but can be \u201caccused in court\u201d.<\/p>\n

The word \u201ccharge\u201d in a criminal legal sense has been extended outside the courts to include the constitutional requirement that \u201ca person who is arrested or detained shall be informed in writing within twenty-four hours (and in a language that he understands) of the facts and grounds for his arrest or detention.\u201d To accuse any person arrested or detained is also to charge the person. So a person can be charged at a police station, in his or her home, in a car, or on the road just as he or she can be charged in court and not \u201cto court\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In connection with crime\/law many persons speak or write that \u201cMr A\/Mrs A was charged to court\u201d. I have just been reflecting on the correctness of the use of that phrase \u201ccharged to court\u201d or \u201ccharge to court\u201d. The correct phrase I learnt is that a person can only be \u201ccharged in court\u201d and not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":37277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-publication"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}