Innocence Compensation: Vicarious Liability and Indemnification by the State for the Harms Caused by Wrongful Convictions

Myles McLellan

Myles McLellan Algoma University

Resumen

Civil litigation at its best is a lengthy, onerous, and expensive proposition for a recently exonerated individual to pursue in the hope of recovering compensation for the harms caused by a wrongful conviction. In the event that such an individual can fund an action, the claim will include as party defendants the offending police officer, crown counsel and their employers being some agency of the State. At common law it will be the individual police officer and crown attorney who will be presumptively liable to the plaintiff for financial recovery. Legislation has been enacted in the provinces and territories together with the federal government to implement vicarious liability to the State. That vicarious liability and consequent indemnity however is shaped by the exigencies of collective bargaining agreements, internal policy statements and errors and omissions insurance.

Innocence Compensation: Vicarious Liability and Indemnification by the State for the Harms Caused by Wrongful Convictions

Biografía del autor/a

Myles McLellan, Algoma University

LL.B. (J.D.); LL.M. (Osgoode); Ph.D (Anglia Ruskin – Law). The author is a Professor of Law and Justice in the Department of Law and Politics at Algoma University; a member of the Policy Review Committee for the Canadian Criminal Justice Association and the Founder and Director of the Innocence Compensation Project. With particular relevance to the subject matter of this paper, the author has been a standing permanent agent for the federal Department of Justice (Federal Crown) and a Commissioner for a police service in Ontario. The author would like to thank Dr. Terry Coleman, MOM, Retired Chief of Police, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for his insight.