Say Devon goes to some government body and accuses Pat of committing a crime: maybe rape, or theft, or fraud, or whatever else. Pat wants to sue Devon, claiming these allegations are factually false.
It turns out there are two possible tort theories for Pat to use, each with its own constraints. The most well-known is defamation, the theory being that Devon said something about Pat that was false.
But the other is "malicious prosecution," the theory being that Devon brought about a government action against Pat, based on something false. Confusingly, the term extends both to bringing about criminal proceedings (what we normally view as "prosecution") and bringing about civil proceedings. (Sometimes, the latter is called wrongful use of civil proceedings or some such, but often it's just called malicious prosecution.)
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