Information is a formal criminal charge made without a grand jury indictment by a prosecutor in a document called an information.[1]
The term is used in Canada[2] and various other common law jurisdictions, including a number of U.S. states.
The information is one of the oldest common law pleadings (first appearing around the 13th century), and is nearly as old as the better-known indictment, with which it has always coexisted.[3]
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Criminal information
Section 576(2) of the Criminal Code provides that no criminal information shall be laid or granted.
Other
See sections 504 to 507 and 788 and 789 and Form 2 of the Criminal Code.
A criminal information was a proceeding in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court brought at the suit of the Crown without a previous indictment.[4]
Criminal informations other than those filed ex officio by the Attorney-General were abolished by section 12 of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1938. Any power to bring proceedings for an offence by criminal information in the High Court was abolished by section 6(6) of the Criminal Law Act 1967.
The last occasion on which there was an ex officio information by a law officer was in 1911.[5]
Any power to bring proceedings for an offence by criminal information in the High Court was abolished by section 6(6) of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.
The information is the dominant charging document in the western U.S. states, where extremely dispersed population distribution during the American Old West era made it difficult to select and convene petit juries to hold trials. In that era, convening even larger grand juries just to indict criminals was seen as an extravagance.
In western U.S. states, district attorneys are authorized by statute to charge criminal suspects by filing informations. The defendant is then entitled to challenge the information at a preliminary hearing, during which the prosecution must establish to the judge's satisfaction that probable cause exists to bind over the defendant until trial.
The grand jury is still available in the states where informations are used, but it is usually used only for issuing indictments for certain types of crimes.
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