Who is owed compensation for trial costs after a final acquittal, and what does that duty reach and not reach?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
The practice file would hold the certified copy of the judgment showing the acquittal and the record of its becoming final, the indictment and papers showing who stood as the defendant in that case, and the papers listing the costs incurred in that trial.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the duty as the state's own: where an acquittal in a case has become final, the state must compensate the person who had been the defendant in that case for the costs incurred in that trial, so the duty runs to that former defendant, and only to costs of that trial.
Another reading marks the reach of the exceptions, since even a final acquittal leaves the state free to withhold all or part of those costs, and one of them applies only where a single trial has ended in a final acquittal as to part of the concurrent offences and a final conviction as to the other part.
Your judgment
Which papers in the file could show that the costs claimed were incurred in that trial, rather than in an investigation or another proceeding?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended before it takes effect, or if a court decision decides which expenses count as costs incurred in the trial.