Criminal Procedure Act 2011

Commencement of proceedings and preliminary steps - Filing a charging document

19: Charge may be worded in alternative

You could also call this:

"A charge can say you did one thing or another if that's what the law allows."

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

When you are charged with something, the charge can say you did one thing or another thing, if that's how the law is written. You can be charged with different things at the same time, as long as the law that says what you did wrong allows for it. The charge must follow what the law says, which you can find in the enactment that prescribes the offence, and it can be compared to the 1986 legislation.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3360061.


Previous

18: Court may order further particulars, or

"The judge can ask for more information to make a fair decision"


Next

20: Charge may be representative, or

"A 'representative charge' means one charge can cover many similar offences that happened over time."

Part 2Commencement of proceedings and preliminary steps
Filing a charging document

19Charge may be worded in alternative

  1. A charge may allege several different matters, acts, or omissions in the alternative if the relevant offence is worded in the alternative in the enactment that prescribes it.

Compare