Before a judge decides whether to cancel detention, when must the prosecutor be asked for an opinion first?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file we read the judge's ruling on cancelling detention, any application by the detained person asking for release, and any paper showing the prosecutor asked for cancellation. We also look for the request for the prosecutor's opinion and the prosecutor's reply, and for anything recording why the decision could not wait.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the cross-reference to paragraph one at face value: a judge deciding whether to cancel detention must, before making that decision, ask the prosecutor's opinion, the same duty the provision places on a judge before a decision on bail.
Another reading works from the exceptions: the duty does not apply where the cancellation is made on the prosecutor's own request, or where the need for speed requires it, and the provision does not say how urgent the need must be or whether a late opinion would still suffice.
Your judgment
When a judge cancelled detention without first asking the prosecutor, what in the file would show that urgency or the prosecutor's own request made that lawful?
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 to define the urgency that removes the duty to ask, or if a court decision explains whether an opinion given after the ruling can satisfy the provision.