Is the criminal charge against you valid?
For the Prosecution to successfully convince the court to convict you of an offence, the Prosecution has to show the judge that all the elements of the offence have been made out.
All criminal offences consist of two main parts, namely:
Actus reus: The physical act, i.e. your conduct at the time of the offence.
Mens rea: The mental element, i.e. your mental state at the time of the offence.
You are liable for a criminal offence if your actions and state of mind fulfill the legal elements that make out the criminal offence. The actus reus and mens rea of every offence is different, so the possible ways to argue that there was no actus reus and mens rea are also different depending on your offence. It would be unsafe to think you are able to understand the actus reus of an offence and put up a good defence without proper legal training.
The safest thing to do when you are charged with a criminal offence is to engage a criminal defence lawyer. He or she will be able to explain the different elements which make out the criminal offence to you, as well as evaluate the charge brought against you to see if you had indeed committed the offence. Your criminal defence lawyer will also ask you questions to tease out the relevant information to assess if you have a defence against the criminal charge that you face. If even one element of the criminal offence is not made out, the criminal offence against you is not valid.
A criminal defence lawyer can and will also write to the Prosecution using written representations to explain why you should not be charged with a criminal offence. If the written representations are successful, the Prosecution will drop the charge against you.
