Legal Translation from News Article Help Please.

[CSV]

This is a follow up article to a recent headline case in the region, concerning the death of an infant.

La mère de Christelle Mourlon, Laurence Boucher, Claude Dionnet, son

beau-père, et Pierre Bouton, son père biologique, ont décidé de se

porter partie civile, annonce ce lundi soir leur conseil, Me Gilles-Jean

Portejoie.

The bit I'm having trouble with is underlined and in bold - it is obviously 'legalese', but what does it mean in practice?

Full article here

[YCCMB]

It's not exactly, I don't think, the same as a private prosecution, but essentially it's a similar concept.[url]http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F20798.xhtml[/url]

[NormanH]

[quote user="CSV"]This is a follow up article to a recent headline case in the region, concerning the death of an infant.

La mère de Christelle Mourlon, Laurence Boucher, Claude Dionnet, son

beau-père, et Pierre Bouton, son père biologique, ont décidé de se

porter partie civile, annonce ce lundi soir leur conseil, Me Gilles-Jean

Portejoie.

The bit I'm having trouble with is underlined and in bold - it is obviously 'legalese', but what does it mean in practice?

Full article here

[/quote]

In the case of a crime the police investigate with a juge d'instruction and then it is brought to court.

However that is the State's prosecution (what would be called 'the Crown' in England'), and it is a criminal one.

The ordinary people involved don't have much control over what goes on except as witnesses for example

For someone who might be an injured party, the victim of a theft for example, on in this case the family, to get any damages or compensation they have to 'porter partie civile' , effectively bring a civil case for damages as opposed to the criminal case brought by the State.

In this case it would also let them demand an additional enquiry, or have direct access to the 'juge' responsible for the case.

[CSV]

Great explanations, thanks both [:)]