Criminal charges we defend in Toronto and across Ontario

People assume a criminal case is decided by whether you did it. Far more often it turns on how the Crown came by its evidence. Was the stop lawful? Did the warrant say what it needed to say? Was the right to counsel honoured before the interview started, or somewhere after it? Those questions are answered in the disclosure, not in the courtroom, and finding the answers is most of the work.

Where a search or a detention breached the Charter⁠, the remedy can be exclusion of what it produced. Section 24(2) of the Charter allows a court to exclude evidence obtained in breach of a protected right where admitting it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. On a drug or firearms prosecution that usually decides the case, because with the seized item excluded there is very often nothing left to  prove.

The order of events matters as much as the facts. Bail comes first, and the conditions set in the first week govern the next year of your life: where you live, whether you can go home, whether you can work. Our bail guide sets out the 3 grounds a Crown can rely on under section 515(10) of the Criminal Code, and what makes a surety acceptable. Disclosure follows, then Crown pre-trials, then any Charter application, then trial. The stage-by-stage guide gives the timelines Ontario courts are actually running.

Two practical points, whatever the charge. First, resolution is not failure. Most matters end without a trial, and a withdrawal negotiated from a position of strength is a better outcome than an acquittal you spent 2 years and a great deal of money reaching. Second, the cost is knowable in advance for most stages, and we would rather quote a block fee and be held to it than run a meter. That is set out in the fees guide⁠, in figures.

If you are facing something that is not on this page, the answer is almost certainly still yes. Impaired driving, breaches of probation or bail, weapons possession, obstruction, youth matters under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and appeals from any of them are all run out of this office. Case results gives the route to each outcome rather than just the outcome, and the courthouses page lists where we appear.