Difference between revisions of "I Was Harassed or Assaulted by the Police"

In complaints involving municipal forces, if you are not satisfied with the informal resolution or the investigator’s report, you can send a letter to the Office of the [[Police Complaints Commissioner (BC)]] asking for a review. The Commissioner <span class="noglossary">will</span> review the investigation and may <span class="noglossary">order</span> further investigation.

If you believe you have been harmed by a police officer that was acting improperly you have the option of starting a lawsuit.

There are no straightforward lawsuits against the police, and success is never guaranteed. Lawsuits may take months or even years to reach a conclusion. You can expect the police to be represented by lawyers who will vigorously defend the case. Some lawsuits settle before trial, but these are rare and exceptional cases.  

You should be aware that a lawsuit is a public process. The documents you file to commence the lawsuit will be available to anyone who searches the court registry. Other documents filed in the course of the lawsuit will normally be available to the public as well. The trial is open to the public, and the judge's decision or jury's verdict will be made public. Lawsuits against the police sometimes attract the attention of media.  

You can sue in one of two courts: BC Provincial Court's "Small Claims Court" or BC Supreme Court. In either court, the only possible outcome is an award of money.  

For more information on the choice of courts and the process for starting a lawsuit, see the chapter on [[I Need to Take Someone to Court]].

The "defendant" means the person or agency you are suing. In cases involving the RCMP, the appropriate defendant is "Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia (Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General)" (pursuant to BC Order in Council 762/201 dated December 11, 2015). While the RCMP provides policing services under contract for the Province of British Columbia, it is a federal policing agency. Typically, a lawyer from the Federal Government (Department of Justice) will be assigned to defend the claim. Court documents such as the Notice of Civil Claim should be delivered by registered mail to:

:Victoria, BC V8W 9E2

In a municipality with its own police force, the appropriate defendant is the municipality itself (see [http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section20 section 20 of the Police Act, RSBC 1996, c 367]. For example, if you wish to sue for damages caused by members of the Vancouver Police Department, you should name the "City of Vancouver" as a defendant. It is not proper to name the Vancouver Police Department because it is a department of the City, not itself a legal entity capable of being sued.  

You should not name individual officers as defendants except in the most serious cases of misconduct. Officers are not personally liable for their conduct on the job except in the most extreme cases. That said, there may be advantages to naming individual officers as defendants at the beginning of the case to preserve your right to examine those officers prior to trial.   

There are more procedural steps that must be followed in a lawsuit. See the section called [[I Need to Take Someone to Court — What's the Process?|I Need to Take Someone to Court]].