COSTA RICAS CRIMINAL LAW SYSTEM

Part One

When you come to Costa Rica, your mind and all your experience is based on your own countries laws and regulations, for sure you understand your system and the know hows of it, but what happens when you are in a new country and get into trouble, do you have any idea of how will you be treated if you become a prosecuted person in Costa Rica. I will try and explain some of the basics.

Costa Rica is a Roman Tradition Country, so the origins of its criminal systems lies in the Roman Criminal System, basically inherited from Spain, France and Germany from the colony. We do not have juries, we have tribunals made of three Judges if the case involves the possibility of incarceration for more than three years and only one Judge if the crime is only punishable with less than three years in jail.

We have a investigative criminal system, in which there is four different parties involved.

FISCAL: (Something similar to the District Attorney of the United States), he is in charged of the investigations, he prepares the accusation, and follows it up in court, he will open and investigations file, with the name of the offended, offender, and the criminal qualification for the crime.

This person is a titled Lawyer, and has assistants that help him in his duty, he is entitled to determine what is the qualification of the crime, and decide if it is prosecutable or not, depending on various factors:

- Time frame available: If the crime is very old, its punishment might already expired (That is determinate by the highest penalty applicable to the specific crime)

- That the crime is so insignificant that it would be more expensive to prosecuted than to forget it

- That the issue is of organized crime, and a deal is made with a little fellow and immunity is granted in order to obtain his or her testimony against the big guy.

- The offender has suffered already a punishment so severe that imposing a new penalty would make it disproportional to the crime (This is called Natural Penalty)

After analyzing all this, plus the evidence, testimonies, etc, he presents his case before the Penal Judge of the preliminary phase (meaning of the penal process), for him to decide if the matter should go to trial or not

THE OFFENDED: He can help the Fiscal to obtain all the evidence necessary to prosecute the offender, he can also obtain remunerative indemnity for the damage made to him in this same process, so the Fiscal will ask the Offended if he want to become Querrellante, to help him prosecute and Actor Civil, to get indemnity for this damage.

THE DEFENSE: Defense lawyers are supplied by the state if you do not have money to pay for one, if the state can demonstrate that you had the money necessary to pay for your defense and did not, they will charge you with the fees for the Defender they provided for you.

THE JUDGE: He will decide if, as I already mentioned, the matter presented to him has any possibility of going to trial, analyzing the evidence presented by the Fiscal, and controlling the legality of the process and the evidence obtain to support the Fiscal Case, he acts in this phase of the process as a policeman, controlling the legality of the procedures.

PRELIMINARY HEARING:

After the investigation is over, and the judge has enough evidence to consider there is a possibility to present the case to trial, he call upon a preliminary hearing to hear the arguments of all the parties before deciding to send it to trial or not.

The Fiscal, the Offended if he decided to act as Querellante or Actor Civil, and the offender, will present themselves before the judge and present their case to him. Also and as part of the normal procedure, if the crime allows a deal or negotiation to be made by the offender and the offended. Before starting the hearing, and if the type of crime allows it, the Judge will asks the parties if there is any possibility of settlement between them , or if there is any proposition by any of the parties for the other to analyze.

If a settlement is reached between the parties involved, and the Fiscal also considers he is satisfied with the agreement then they presented to the Judge for his consideration, after analyzing all the issues, the Judge will approve or disapproved the settlement , propose different conditions he thinks necessary for the agreement, and make his decision.

If the settlement is approved then the criminal case is closed, if the agreement has time terms to accomplish as part of the settlement, then the case will closed when the time conditions are reached.

If there is no agreement, each parties will present its case before the Judge, and he will decide if the case goes to trial or not, normally in a lapse of two days after the hearing.

There is other ways to stop the criminal case, (Only in crimes that have less than three years in prison as their maximum sentence, or that are classified as De Accin Privada, in English of private prosecution) and they are:

Process Suspended on Trial Basis: This procedure will allow the offender to stop the process against him, by doing community services for a trial period, in which he will demonstrate that he is going to continue his life without more criminal offenses. During the trial period the case against him will be suspended and will only be reactivated if he fails in his tasks for the community.

This person will require also the following

To reside in an specific place

Abstain of consuming drugs or liquor

Have a stable work place

Not to carry guns

Total retribution of the damage made: If the crime allows it, the offender can avoid criminal prosecution if he pays what ever damage made to the victim, This can also be solicitated in the preliminary hearing before the Judge, he will ask the victim if he agrees to drop all the charges upon an economical retribution of the damage made, and if he agrees then a settlement is produce.

This is the first of a series of articles we will provide in following editions, This exposition of procedures, is as a general idea, it does not touch technicalities and issues that are not understandable by the general public, that is the intention of it. In any case in this matter you should always get proper counseling, never attempt to resolve criminal issues by your own, always find a professional to represent you, also remember to ask the professional how many year of law practice he or she has and what is his expertise in this area o law. No all lawyers specialize in Criminal Law, not all general lawyer know about criminal law, because their area of expertise is other different. Get the best advise available for your money.

If you have any questions about the article or any other questions of legal matters, please dont hesitate in calling 255-1592, or fax 255-0061, all the questions will be answered.

Rmulo Pacheco S.

Attorney at Law

E-Mail- romulo@residencycr.com