Malicious prosecution is an abuse of the process of the court by wrongfully setting the law in motion on a criminal charge. In order to succeed the plaintiff must prove that there was a prosecution without any just and reasonable cause, initiated by malice and the case was decided in the plaintiff’s favour.
There are five ingredients to the tort of malicious prosecution, namely:
- The proceedings must have been instituted, or continued by the defendant;
- He must have acted, without reasonable and probable cause
- He must have acted, maliciously,
- The proceedings must have been unsuccessful.
- That the plaintiff has suffered damage
