Do you have the right to remain silent when you are being formally charged?
- You have the right to remain silent when you are being formally charged and asked to sign the Cautioned Statement.
- This means that you do not have to mention the facts which you intend to rely on in your defence.
- However, the Court may not believe your defence if you fail to mention your defence in the Cautioned Statement and instead only mention it later at a trial, for example, because the Court may feel that your defence has only been recently created and it is not true.
