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{{Short description|Document which begins a criminal proceeding}}
An '''information''' is a formal [[criminal charge]] which begins a criminal proceeding in the courts. The information is one of the oldest [[common law]] [[pleading]]s (first appearing around the 13th century), and is nearly as old as the better-known [[indictment]], with which it has always coexisted.<ref name=kI"Orfield">{{cite book |last1=Orfield |first1=Lester Bernhardt |title=Criminal Procedure from Arrest to Appeal |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |pages=194–197|year=1947}} Available via [[HeinOnline]]. Orfield cites Holdsworth as the source of this information.

</ref><ref name="Holdsworth">{{cite journal |last1=Holdsworth |first1=W.S. |title=The History of the Criminal Information |journal=The Canadian Bar Review |date=1923 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=300|url=https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/view/46/46}} Available via [[HeinOnline]].</ref>

Although the information has been abolished in [[England and Wales]] and [[Northern Ireland]], it is still used in [[Canada]], the [[United States]] (at both the federal level and in some [[U.S. states|states]]) and various other common law jurisdictions.

==Canada==

===Criminal charges===
In Canada, charges under the [[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]] are either by [[Summary offence|summary process]], or by [[indictment]]. Both types of charges begin with an information, except in the rare situation of a [[Indictment#Canada – direct indictment|direct indictment]] by the Attorney General.

The form of an information is prescribed by the Criminal Code.<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-503.html#docCont ''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, Form 2.]</ref> Informations are to be drafted using Form 2 for both indictable matters<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-506.html#docCont ''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, s 506.]</ref> and summary matters.<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-788.html#docCont ''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, s 788.]</ref>

An information must be sworn by the informant, who is normally a peace officer. The informant then must lay the information before a [[justice of the peace]]. The information must contain an allegation that an offence has been committed, within the territorial jurisdiction of the justice of the peace.<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-504.html#docCont ''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, s 504.]</ref> The justice of the peace then is required to review the information and determine if process should issue under the ''Criminal Code'' for the arrest of the individual.<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-507.html#docCont ''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, s 507.]</ref>

If the matter is a summary matter, the information is then laid before the court with jurisdiction to hear the charges, usually the Provincial Court, and the matter will proceed directly to trial.

In indictable matters, the information is laid before a judge of the Provincial Court for the purposes of a preliminary inquiry, which is a hearing to determine if the [[Crown prosecutor]] has demonstrated that there is evidence to support the charges in the information. If the preliminary inquiry judge rules that the Crown prosecutor has satisfied this standard, the Court commits the accused to stand trial. The Crown prosecutor then files an indictment, which is the formal charge to begin the trial, normally in the superior trial court. The indictment is based on the charges originally set out in the information. The Crown is entitled to add additional charges which were supported by the evidence led in the preliminary inquiry, even if those charges were not in the information. However, if the preliminary inquiry judge declined to commit the accused on a charge set out in the information, the Crown cannot include that charge in the indictment.<ref>[https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1090/index.do?r=AAAAAQAJYmVyY292aWNoAQ ''R v Tapaquon'', [1993<nowiki>]</nowiki> 4 SCR 535.]</ref> The matter then proceeds to trial on the indictment.

===Information to obtain a search warrant===

The term "information" is also used for other purposes in the Criminal Code, such as applications to obtain a search warrant. A peace officer who is seeking a search warrant must file a sworn information before a justice of the peace, outlining the reasons in support of a search warrant. The justice of the peace then reviews the information to obtain, and decides whether the information supports the issuance of a search warrant.

==United Kingdom==

===England and Wales===
A '''criminal information''' was a proceeding in the [[King's Bench Division]] of the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] brought at the suit of the [[The Crown|Crown]] without a previous [[Indictment#England and Wales|indictment]].<ref>[[Halsbury's Statutes]], Fourth Edition, One of the reprints,{{Which|date=April 2011}} Volume 12(1), page 360, notes to section 6 of the [[Criminal Law Act 1967]]</ref>

Criminal informations other than those filed [[ex officio]] by the [[Attorney-General]] were abolished by section 12 of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1938. Any power to bring proceedings for an offence by criminal information in the High Court was abolished by section 6(6) of the [[Criminal Law Act 1967]].

The last occasion on which there was an ex officio information by a law officer was in 1911.<ref>The Seventh Report of the Criminal Law Revision Committee (Cmnd 2659), paragraph 63</ref>

===Northern Ireland===
Any power to bring proceedings for an offence by criminal information in the [[Courts of Northern Ireland#High Court|High Court]] was abolished by section 6(6) of the [[Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967]].

==United States==

Because the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] expressly creates a constitutional right to be indicted by a grand jury, the information is used in federal criminal procedure only when a defendant voluntarily pleads guilty (often as part of a [[Plea bargaining in the United States|plea bargain]]) and waives the right to an indictment.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2213423/
|title=Madoff's "Information": Why didn't the Ponzi schemer get indicted instead?
|first=Harlan J.
|last=Protass
|publisher=Slate
|date=2009-03-11}}</ref>

However, the Fifth Amendment right to a grand jury indictment does not apply against the state governments because the grand jury provision has not been [[Incorporation of the Bill of Rights|incorporated]] against the states by the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]. Thus, the information has always been the dominant charging document in the [[Western United States|western states]], where extremely dispersed population distribution during the [[American frontier]] era made it difficult to select and convene petit [[Jury|juries]] to hold trials. In that era, convening even larger grand juries just to indict criminals was seen as an unnecessary extravagance.

In general, [[district attorney]]s initiate criminal actions against suspects by filing complaints. In eastern states and in federal courts, the prosecutor seeks to obtain an indictment from a grand jury, or strikes a plea bargain with the defendant, as part of which the defendant waives his right to be indicted, and then files an information as part of the process of reducing the plea bargain to judgment.

In western states, the defendant is entitled to challenge the complaint at a [[preliminary hearing]], during which the prosecution must establish to the satisfaction of a magistrate that [[probable cause]] exists to bind over the defendant until trial. If the magistrate finds probable cause, the district attorney files an information, which supersedes the complaint and becomes the operative pleading against the defendant through trial, verdict, and judgment. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of this procedure in ''[[Hurtado v. California]]'' (1886).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martinez |first1=J. Michael |title=The Greatest Criminal Cases: Changing the Course of American Law |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |page=7 |isbn=9781440828690 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xaiSAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |access-date=31 March 2019}}</ref>

The grand jury is still available in the states where informations are used, but it is usually used only for issuing indictments for certain types of crimes or for certain types of anti-corruption investigations.

==See also==
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Information|volume=14|page=556}}
* United States: [[Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure]] Rule 7 and Rule 9.
* Canada: [[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Criminal procedure}}
{{English criminal law navbox}}

[[Category:Criminal procedure]]
[[Category:Prosecution]]

Information (formal criminal charge) - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article