Under what conditions may a military court order a sum corresponding to a fine, surcharge or forfeiture, and who may set that order in motion?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file, we read the judgment imposing the fine, surcharge or forfeiture and the note that the provisional payment ruling was pronounced together with the sentence, any application by the military prosecutor asking for that order, and the papers showing why enforcement after finality may be impossible or difficult.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading keeps every condition: where a military court imposes a fine, surcharge or forfeiture, it may, on its own initiative or on the military prosecutor's application, order the defendant to pay a sum corresponding to that penalty, where it is recognised that after the judgment becomes final there is a concern that enforcement cannot be carried out or will be difficult, and this must be pronounced, at the same time as the sentence, as a judgment.
Another reading stresses what the provision leaves open: it speaks of a sum 'corresponding to' the fine, surcharge or forfeiture and of a 'concern' that enforcement cannot be carried out or will be difficult after finality, but sets out neither how that corresponding amount is worked out nor which facts give rise to such a concern.
Your judgment
On what material could the court rest its recognition that, after finality, enforcement cannot be carried out or will be difficult, given that the provision names no facts?
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 change which penalties may be replaced or how the corresponding amount is set, or if a court decision defines what counts as a concern that enforcement will be impossible or difficult.