English peeps: people hiring their own prosecutors? aka, help me understand Broadchurch (spoiler-ish)

[katilac]

I'm on Season 2 of Broadchurch, and the parents of the victim are getting a prosecutor to "take our case." 

What the what? I know they have public prosecutors, yes? So people can hire a prosecutor for, what? To replace the public ones, help them? 

 

[Laura Corin]

2 hours ago, katilac said:

I'm on Season 2 of Broadchurch, and the parents of the victim are getting a prosecutor to "take our case." 

What the what? I know they have public prosecutors, yes? So people can hire a prosecutor for, what? To replace the public ones, help them? 

 

I didn't watch season two. It's called a private prosecution but I don't know anything about it

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/private-prosecutions

[easypeasy]

I have no answer for your question but oh, how I wish I could once again be watching Broadchurch for the first time!!!! It's brilllllliantttttt!!!!

[katilac]

Apparently anyone can apply to bring a private prosecution, it's just not quite as quick and smooth as shown on TV. 

On Broadchurch, it seems like they went with the private prosecutor bc the case got more complicated than anticipated, and they wanted to choose the prosecutor vs using the standard one. 

I did discover that about a dozen US states allow for some type of private prosecution, but it seems even more complicated and I don't think it's used often. I had no idea that existed for criminal cases!

18 hours ago, easypeasy said:

I have no answer for your question but oh, how I wish I could once again be watching Broadchurch for the first time!!!! It's brilllllliantttttt!!!!

It's so good!

[Forget-Me-Not]

I never caught the private prosecution thing when I watched it, or at least I didn’t remember that. That’s interesting.
 

I will say I loved Broadchurch, but the 3rd season was almost too much for me. It got really gritty in season 3 (though to be fair, even in seasons 1 & 2, DH and I would watch an episode or two then switch to something like Parks & Rec before we headed to bed).