How to file a criminal complaint so that it can be dealt with

Quick overview

• Anyone can file a criminal complaint – free of charge and without legal qualification.

• It cannot be “withdrawn”, but the victim’s consent is required for some offences.

• The police must investigate the report and notify you within 1 month.

• Criminal liability is limited by the statute of limitations.

• In practice, most reports are dismissed for lack of evidence.

Not sure if it makes sense to file a report? Send us all the information and we will tell you the realistic chances before you file.

How and where can I file a criminal complaint?

You can file a criminal complaint at any Police Department or prosecutor’s office. There is no charge, so you do not pay any fees for filing it.

In fact, it is possible to submit it:

1. In writing – there is no prescribed form for how to write a criminal complaint. However, you should not forget to include the details of who is filing the criminal complaint, a detailed description of the crime, the time and place of the crime, identification of the suspect, if known, and optimally also identification of witnesses and attachment of evidence, if any. It is recommended that the criminal complaint be sent by registered mail or have a copy of the delivery confirmed by the police or prosecutor’s office.
2. Orally – At the police department or prosecutor’s office, dictate the criminal complaint into the record. It is advisable to read the report and ask for a copy before signing it. At the same time, as the reporting party, you have the right to have the report completed if you remember something important or to have it corrected.

Remember that it is not automatic for the police to tell you how they have dealt with a criminal report. You must ask for this directly in the criminal complaint and you will receive a notification within one month. If you do so, the police must inform you within one month.

How exactly do I write a criminal complaint?

The rules for a criminal complaint are similar to those for any other written submission. Therefore, do not forget to specify to whom it is addressed (in this case, the name of the Police or prosecutor’s office) and who is filing it. There is the option of an anonymous criminal complaint, but this has its disadvantages. This is dealt with below.

In order to demonstrate what the content of the report should be, let’s use a fictitious situation where you file a criminal complaint against a driver who hit your grandmother in a crosswalk.

The criminal complaint should answer the following questions:

• When and where the offence should have occurred – in our fictitious case, we will state that the offence occurred on 11 October at the crossing from the Bulovka hospital, in the Prague 8 district, at around 2 p.m.
• At this point, you are not expected to namethe crime. It is important to state that at a specific place and time, a driver driving a Škoda Fabia hit a grandmother, causing her serious bodily harm.
• How the offence took place – please elaborate on the above offence. For our fictitious example, we would write that the grandmother was crossing at a green light when a car came around the bend at such a speed that she was unable to react. Moreover, the perpetrator fled the scene and did nothing to help the grandmother.
• What the consequences of the crime are known – in this case, we will ideally provide reports from a doctor that indicate the extent of the injuries, including the length of treatment required.
• Information about the perpetrator – ideally it is appropriate to identify the perpetrator directly. However, police authorities expect to file a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator where we have limited or even no information about the perpetrator. For our fictitious criminal report, we will include in this paragraph, for example, the registration number of the vehicle if we were lucky enough to see it.
• Information about the victim and any other witnesses – in this paragraph it is important to include information leading to the identification of persons who are relevant to further proceedings. Thus, the victim is our grandmother and the witness at the scene was Mrs Horáček, for whom we will give the contact details she provided.
• Evidence and other relevant facts – at the end, we will attach, for example, photographs that show the offender’s car, or draw attention to the fact that there is a camera at the crossing that could provide evidence.

Counsel advises: How you write a criminal complaint and what evidence you use to support it often determines whether the police or prosecutor will bring a criminal case. If you want to minimize the risk of delay, we can help. We will assess the adequacy, write the criminal complaint and even represent you in filing the complaint if necessary.

Sample criminal notification

We do not recommend that you trust the model criminal complaint forms that you can find on the internet in PDF or Word format. As many as two thirds of criminal complaints are dropped, and this is often because of the form of the criminal complaint. It is therefore better to use an experienced lawyer. At The Affordable Lawyer, an attorney with more than 10 years of experience in criminal law will evaluate your situation and then prepare your criminal complaint.

Nevertheless, we provide you with a template that at least roughly outlines what a proper criminal complaint should look like:

Criminal complaint – hitting a pedestrian with serious bodily injury

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Submitter: Jan Novák
Address: Ulice 123, 110 00 Prague 1
Phone: +420 123 456 789
E-mail: jan.novak@email.cz

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Submitted on: 12 October 2023

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Addressee: Police of the Czech Republic
Regional Police Directorate of the Capital City of Prague
Kongresová 1666, 140 00 Praha 4-Nusle

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Description of offence:

On 11 October 2023, at around 14:00, a pedestrian was struck by a car at the crossing from the Bulovka Hospital in the Prague 8 district. At that place and time, an elderly lady (hereinafter referred to as “the victim”) was hit by a driver in a Škoda Fabia car and suffered serious bodily injury as a result of the accident.

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Consequence:

The victim was crossing at a green light when a Skoda Fabia vehicle came around a bend at high speed. The victim was unable to react to the fast-moving car, which subsequently hit her. After the collision, the driver of the vehicle drove away from the scene without providing any assistance to the victim.

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Consequences of the crime:

The victim was immediately taken to Bulovka Hospital where she was diagnosed with severe fractures and internal injuries that will require long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation. The medical report states that the expected healing period exceeds six months.

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Perpetrator Information:

According to witness statements and photographs that were able to be taken, the vehicle has license plate number ABC 1234. The driver is an unknown male in his 30s and 40s.

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Victim and witness information:

Victim: Marie Novotná
Address
Phone: +420 987 654 321

Witness: Eva Horáčková
Address: Ulice 789, 170 00 Prague 7
Phone: +420 555 666 777

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Evidence and other relevant facts:

I enclose photographs showing the perpetrator’s vehicle and draw attention to the presence of a security camera located right next to the crossing, which could provide additional evidence. Please provide the footage from this camera.

Who can file a criminal complaint?

You can file a criminal complaint without being the victim or victim of a crime. All that is important for filing is that you have knowledge that a crime has been committed. There are even some cases where you must do so (offences of murder, grievous bodily harm, abuse of a person in your care), otherwise you put yourself at risk of prosecution for not reporting the crime.

Another option is to make an anonymous criminal report. The police still have to deal with it, but it has a considerably complicated situation due to the absence of an important witness and the potential for ambiguities in the submission to be resolved. In the case of an anonymous submission, you have to take into account that you will not know the outcome of the investigation.

There are a few exceptions to reporting a crime. They are exempt:

• attorneys and their staff who learn of a crime in the course of their practice,
• religious persons who learn of a crime during confession,
• persons who, by making a report, would place a person close to them in danger of bodily harm, death or prosecution.

What happens after a criminal report is filed?

After the filing, the police begin what is known as an investigation, which involves securing the necessary evidence, leads to a possible crime, and the submission of explanations by the persons under investigation. At this stage, the police authorities are still determining whether a crime may have occurred at all and who the alleged perpetrator may be.

Approximately two-thirds of criminal reports end at this stage, when the police either shelve the complaint or refer it to another authority, for example for misdemeanour or administrative proceedings.

Criminal prosecution

In the opposite situation, where the facts suggest that a criminal offence has been committed, a criminal prosecution is initiated. This is initiated by the police or the public prosecutor informing a designated person that he or she is being prosecuted as a defendant for a criminal offence.

At that point, the pre-trial procedure is also initiated to investigate all relevant circumstances and to gather evidence, which may include witness interviews or expert reports, for example.

At the moment the investigation is completed, the police authority or the public prosecutor may discontinue the prosecution, refer it to another authority as in the previous step, or, failing that, bring an action before the court together with a list of proposed evidence.

Three things to watch for in a criminal complaint:

1) The time limit for filing a criminal complaint

Remember that the ability to initiate a criminal prosecution is not open-ended. This is because the strength of the evidence available weakens over time and the seriousness of the crime may diminish. The time limits for filing a criminal complaint depend on the seriousness of the offence. Statutes of limitations range in the order of years, for example:

• The statute of limitations for fraud ranges from 3 to 10 years, taking into account the amount of damage or whether the perpetrator is a member of an organised group.
• The statute of limitations for child neglect is normally 3 years, but can be extended to 5 years for repeat offenders.
• Fighting has a statute of limitations of 3-5 years, depending on whether serious bodily harm has occurred.
• The crime of murder is statute-barred after 30 years.

However, the law is thinking of acts that are not covered by the statute of limitations. These include the offence of founding, supporting and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms, the offences of subversion of the Republic, and terrorist attack.

The statute of limitations varies according to the qualification of the act. If you are not sure, we will be happy to check the specific time limit for you according to the current legislation.

2) Penalty for false accusation

In practice, we often see our clients face concerns about the penalty of false accusation before filing a criminal complaint. Therefore, it is important to understand that there is a fundamental difference between a false accusation and the failure to file a criminal complaint. As a whistleblower , you are not responsible for correctly assessing whether a crime actually occurred and who is responsible.

Criminal liability for making a false accusation would only arise when you knowingly lied and the police were subsequently able to prove that you made the false accusation, for example, because of a dispute with the perpetrator you denounce. In such cases, you yourself would be guilty of the offence set out in Section 345 of the Criminal Code, which reads as follows: “Whoever falsely accuses another of a criminal offence shall be liable to imprisonment for up to two years.”

There are, however, more severe penalties if you:

• make a false accusation through the press, film, radio, television, social network or similar means,
• cause damage of at least 500,000 CZK,
• you commit the act with the intention of seriously damaging another’s employment or disrupting their family relationships,
• falsely accused someone else in order to cover up or make light of their own criminal offence,
• falsely accused a person who owed you a duty arising out of his or her employment, profession, position or function (most often, these are public officials who are fulfilling their duties).

In the above cases, the prison sentence can be increased to up to 8 years.

If you yourself have been the victim of a false accusation, we have written a separate article on how to defend yourself against an attack on your honour.

3) Withdrawal of the criminal complaint is not possible

Remember that once you have filed a criminal complaint, it cannot be withdrawn. The prosecutor is required by law to prosecute all crimes of which he or she becomes aware. Therefore, in this case , a plea bargain between the victim and the offender that proposes compensation for damages for withdrawing the criminal complaint is not an option.

This practice is quite often encountered. However, it is important to know that such an agreement can only be the basis for a conditional discontinuance of the prosecution or the approval of a settlement.

There are, however, offences that can only be prosecuted by law enforcement authorities if the injured party agrees to it.

These offences are:

• bodily harm,
• failure to provide assistance,
• endangering a person with a venereal disease,
• extortion,
• violation of domestic liberty,
• violation of another’s rights,
• violation of secrecy of documents,
• unauthorized use of another’s property,
• usury.

A complete list of offences for which consent is required for prosecution can be found in Section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

If you are hesitant about whether to file a report, we recommend a legal analysis of the case first. You will save yourself the risk of having the case dropped and possible liability for false accusations.

Advice before filing a criminal complaint

We mentioned in the beginning of this article that in most cases, a criminal complaint is postponed due to insufficient drafting or lack of necessary evidence. However, in practice, we often see cases where people confuse a criminal complaint with a prosecution. According to the Czech legal system, a criminal complaint is not a procedural means of protecting private or property rights.

Summary

A criminal complaint is a submission on the basis of which the law enforcement authorities may investigate suspicion of a criminal offence, and may be filed by anyone who becomes aware of such conduct, in writing, orally on the record, or electronically, without any fee, at any Police Department of the Czech Republic or at a public prosecutor’s office; the report is judged by its content, not by its name or legal qualification, and therefore it is crucial to provide as specific a description of the act as possible, the place and time of its commission, the possible consequences, the available evidence, the details of the victim, witnesses and possibly the perpetrator, otherwise it risks being delayed already at the stage of investigation, where a significant part of the submission ends; the whistleblower can request to be informed of how the report has been dealt with, and the police or public prosecutor must then inform the whistleblower within one month of the action taken; the filing itself does not automatically lead to a prosecution, but first there is an investigation, after which the case may be dropped, referred to another authority or, conversely, proceed to the prosecution phase; a criminal complaint cannot generally be “withdrawn”, as law enforcement authorities act ex officio, except where the law requires the victim’s consent to prosecution, and the reporting party is not liable if the suspicion is not proved unless he or she has knowingly acted falsely, as the offence is only a false accusation; it is also important to bear in mind the statute of limitations, which varies according to the seriousness of the offence and can be as long as decades, and to be aware that a criminal complaint is not a private claim, but a public interest, so in some situations it may be preferable to opt for a civil action or to consult a lawyer before filing, so that the complaint has a real chance of actually being dealt with by the authorities.