Royal Court case outcome (FOI)

​​​Request

There was a court case held in the Royal Court between the end of January to the beginning of February 2024, for [offence redacted], for defendant named [name redacted].  Please advise the outcome. 

Response

The decisions of Courts are absolutely exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law because they are court information. It is the Court that determines how its decisions are publicised.

After a defendant is found guilty of an offence and sentenced the Court will publish a sentencing judgment detailing the offences and the sentence of the Court on www.jerseylaw.je. The defendant will be named in the judgment unless the Court orders it to be anonymized to protect the identity of someone else, such as a victim or a child.

Where a defendant is found not guilty the Court will generally not publish a judgment. As well as being court information it would be absolutely exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law because it is the personal information of the individual who has been found not guilty.

Articles applied

Article 24 - Court information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is held by a scheduled public authority only by virtue of being contained in a document –

(a) filed with, or otherwise placed in the custody of, a court; or

(b) served upon, or by, the scheduled public authority, in proceedings in a particular cause or matter.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is held by a scheduled public authority only by virtue of being contained in a document created by –

(a) a court; or

(b) a member of the administrative staff of a court, in proceedings in a particular cause or matter.

(3) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is held by a scheduled public authority only by virtue of being contained in a document –

(a) placed in the custody of; or

(b) created by, a person conducting an inquiry or arbitration, for the purposes of the inquiry or arbitration.

(4) In this Article –

“arbitration” means arbitration to which Part 2 of the Arbitration (Jersey) Law 1998 applies;

“court” includes any tribunal in which legal proceedings may be brought;

“inquiry” means an inquiry or a hearing held under an enactment;

“proceedings in a particular cause or matter” includes an inquest or post-mortem examination.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.