If you have retained a lawyer, your lawyer will appear in court on your behalf by having you sign a Designation. A designation is a document filed with the Court where you designate your counsel to appear on your behalf, so you don’t have to appear unless it is important or unless your lawyer advises you to.

Usually what happens during the first appearance is that your lawyer will receive the initial Disclosure. The Initial Disclosure could be CDs or paper disclosure or both. For example, if you’ve been charged with impaired driving there will be a couple of CDs: Booking Room video; In Car video; the Breathalyzer Room video; In Cell video and statements such as witness statements, police notes as well as any pictures (such as a car accident).

The usual practice is that the matter would be adjourned for three weeks to a month, we find out if there’s an assigned Crown to the matter and if the disclosure is enough then a Preliminary Hearing takes place with the crown.

Many people that have been charged for the first time, hope that their matter will be resolved in the first appearance. Unfortunately, these matters can take a while, it can be six months to a year or even longer depending if the matter will require a Preliminary Hearing or perhaps a Trial.

It’s very important during this period that you remain patient and that you trust your Council because they are trying to do what’s best for you. At Brace Law we tend to resolve matters as quickly as possible. You should understand that this is a process that requires the Crown to agree to certain terms. It’s very important that you are very open with your counsel of record in that you can provide as much evidence to help build up your character, essentially showing the Crown that you are a good person. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that you are innocent until proven guilty, whether that is by Trial or by a Resolution.

Being charged with a criminal offence is quite serious and can be very stressful. At Brace Law we’re always here if you want to talk and with all our cases, we’ll keep you up-to-date and make sure that you understand the disclosure as well as the evidence that the Crown has against you.

If you or anybody that you know is in trouble, we can help! We Offer Consultations & Meetings By Phone & Virtually. Affordable Fees. For more details, visit our website www.bracelaw.ca, call us at 905-815-6555 or email admin@bracelaw.ca

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The next step is the Crown Pre-Trial. There could be a couple of Crown Pre-Trials and this usually entails a conversation between your Defence Counsel and the Crown assigned to the matter. This could take place in person, over the phone or by email.

Depending on your charge(s), sometimes you have to provide proof to the Crown. For example, in a domestic situation, if you have completed therapy or you are in therapy or you’ve completed an anger management course, your Defence Counsel would have to provide a completion certificate to the Crown.

Essentially, it’s very good to have a lot of conversations with a Crown because it’s means that you’re coming to a resolution to try and avoid going to trial if not necessary. There are matters where the Defence Counsel and the Crown do not see eye-to-eye and the Crown feels that your case should go to trial.

In this case, the next step is a Judicial Pre-Trial. This is a meeting between the Crown, Defence Counsel and the Judge. This is where you would receive a judge’s opinion on the matter. Usually there is one Judicial Pre-Trial, but you can have more than one Judicial Pre-Trial if there is a potential for a resolution in the case.

As you can see, there are some steps prior that can be taken to see if the case can be resolved prior to going to trial. It’s always important to understand that each case is different because it depends on the facts of the case so some cases will resolve quicker than others and other cases perhaps will end up going to trial. It’s quite important to be patient and always be in touch with your Defence counsel in case you have any questions or concerns.

If you or anyone you know is in trouble and needs representation, please call us right away. Brace Law Can Help. We Offer Consultations & Meetings By Phone & Virtually. Affordable Fees. For more details, call us at 905-815-6555 or email admin@bracelaw.ca

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If you’re not being released on the promise to appear, you are being held for a show cause hearing or a bail hearing. This means that the police officers will have to take you to court where you going to have your bail hearing. Depending on the nature of the charges, the gravity of your charges, the crown will want that you have a Surety. Your Surety can be a residential Surety, or you can reside at an address approved by a Surety.

The function of a surety is like a police officer outside of jail. There are going to be conditions that the crown will ask for that you must abide to. The Surety, which is your supervisor, will have to make sure that you abide by all of these conditions. The Surety can be a friend, family member or a business partner. When you are released to a Surety, a Surety can at any point pull away and dismiss themselves from being your Surety if you do not abide by the rules. As well, the Surety must call the police if you are breaching any of the conditions.

What is important to understand, is that your Surety will be liable to the court because when they sign off on your bail hearing or on your release they will have to vouch money that they could potentially lose if they don’t call the police and you have breached the conditions.

It is important that you understand you shouldn’t be taking your bail hearing very lightly. There will be conditions that will be imposed upon you by the courts, and you must follow them. However you also have to understand that sometimes the crown may want to impose conditions that will interfere with your daily life, so the conversation that you have with your lawyer prior to your release or prior to you signing your bail paper is quite important because you have to be open about your schedule and about your commitment. For example, if the crown is seeking a curfew, your lawyer can somehow try to negotiate a time that will be beneficial for you while at the same time making sure the crown will agree to the release or to that specific time for the curfew.

This condition(s) can be varied at a later date once your court proceedings start however you have to understand that this is a negotiation between the Crown and your lawyer. For example, in a domestic situation the Crown would impose that the complainant and the accused not have any contact with each other, but maybe after some sessions of therapy the Crown will be agreeable to contact with a revocable consent or with a written consent.

The Crown is not necessarily set on imposing solely these conditions, they can be varied but you also have to make sure that prior to your release you not restricted to the point you feel that your freedom is taken away.

If you or anyone you know is in trouble and needs representation, please call us right away. We Can Help. We Offer Consultations & Meetings By Phone & Virtually. Affordable Fees. For more details, call us at 905-815-6555 or email admin@bracelaw.ca

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