Anyone charged with a first-time criminal offence in Ontario should prepare to enter an unfamiliar landscape. From both a legal and procedural perspective, the criminal court process in Ontario can seem complex, with unfamiliar terminology, protocols, and ways of moving the process forward. Add to this the relative lack of control one has over the process, and one’s journey through the judicial system can feel like starting a new job with no experience in a foreign country.
With long-term expertise successfully navigating thousands of clients through the criminal court process in Ontario, the Toronto criminal lawyers of Mass Tsang can help ease your confusion about what happens after being charged with a crime. The following primer and FAQs about the stages of a criminal case in Ontario can serve as your guide to the criminal court process.
The initial processing Ontario police might conduct after your arrest depends on several factors, including the severity of the charges, your cooperation, and relevant protocols. For example, police process those arrested for violent offences differently than they do for those charged with non-violent, relatively minor offences. In a similar vein, the processing may differ depending on whether you were arrested at the scene of the alleged crime or surrendered voluntarily based on a warrant for arrest.
Among the first steps in the process, the police must inform you promptly about the reason for your arrest and inform you of your Section 10 Charter Right to consult with a lawyer. Other initial steps the police may take in processing you after your arrest include:
The senior officer primarily considers the severity of charges and the suspect’s criminal history in making their release decisions. However, some offences and other factors mandate that the police must detain suspects until a bail hearing. If the officer decides to keep you detained, consult with a bail hearing lawyer as soon as possible to help secure a positive bail outcome. Time is short, as the law requires your bail hearing to be held within 24 hours or as soon as reasonably possible. If you fail to gain release at the hearing, you face possible lengthy pretrial incarceration that can significantly impede your ability to strategize an effective criminal defence.
If the police authorize your release, it is conditioned on you promising to attend court hearings and refrain from committing additional crimes. The police can also impose conditions like no contact orders, curfews, scheduled police check-ins, and alcohol/drug prohibitions. Breaching any terms of your release is a criminal offence.
The Criminal Code and other federal statutes classify criminal offences under three categories, as detailed below:
Your first court appearance in Ontario is purely procedural, designed to move the case forward by addressing administrative issues. Typical issues addressed by the first appearance include:
If you’re facing certain indictable offences, or the Crown decides to proceed by indictment on hybrid charges, you can elect whether to be tried by judge alone or by a jury. The accused typically makes this election at a later court date after receiving disclosure materials.
Whether you’re facing sexual assault charges , drug charges , or theft and fraud charges , disclosure is a crucial element of your defence, which explains why the issue is addressed during your first appearance. With disclosure materials, the Crown lays its cards on the table as to what evidence they plan to present in their efforts to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt legal threshold. A skilled criminal defence lawyer is highly adept at examining disclosure materials to help uncover vital flaws in the Crown’s case and/or in strategizing rebuttals against what the evidence is trying to show.
Depending on the complexity of the case and other factors, one or more Crown pre-trial and/or judicial pre-trial meetings may be scheduled. Crown pre-trial meetings are held between the opposing lawyers to negotiate a settlement of the charges that negates the need for a trial. During such meetings, your defence lawyer may point out obvious flaws or weaknesses in the Crown’s evidence to get them to drop the charges. Absent this, your lawyer may seek other remedies to mitigate the charges or sentencing. Your lawyer’s success in securing a favourable negotiated settlement is largely dependent on the strength of the Crown’s evidence, though other factors, like the severity of the offence, efforts to make amends, criminal record, and stable employment and family life also play a role.
Judicial pre-trial meetings operate similarly, though with participation from a non-presiding trial judge who may strive to help the two sides reach a compromise or otherwise encourage settlement by providing non-binding legal opinions on the relative strengths or weaknesses of each side’s positions.
Successful plea and resolution options that can be reached in these Crown pre-trial and judicial pre-trial meetings include:
Considering that less than 10% of criminal cases proceed to a full trial in Ontario, you likely won’t reach this stage of the criminal court process. If you do, it becomes an even more complex legal and procedural environment that will entail testimony, cross-examination, exhibits, motions, points of law, challenges, possible jury selection, and so much more. For this, we’ll need to craft an additional primer in a future blog post.
If you are unsatisfied with the outcome of your criminal case, the criminal appeals process provides you with a potential avenue for redress. Your appeal must be grounded in questions of law, fact, or both, or claim a legitimate miscarriage of justice. You can appeal the conviction, sentence, or both, but know that you only have 30 days to file the appeal.
The duration of your ordeal through Ontario’s criminal court system depends on numerous factors, including case complexity, court jurisdiction, and negotiated settlement efforts, to name just a few. While impaired driving charges can often be resolved within six to 16 months, the complexity of many sexual assault charges can extend criminal court case processing timelines up to 30 months. Generally speaking, the more severe the charges, the longer it takes to adjudicate them through the Ontario criminal court process.
The Greater Toronto Area lawyers of Mass Tsang trust that this primer on the criminal court process in Ontario has provided you with a greater understanding of how to best navigate it should you be charged with a first-time offence. We also hope that you’ll keep us in mind if you’d like to secure outstanding criminal defence to defend against such charges. You can learn more about our legal expertise in the GTA by contacting us 24/7 for a free consultation.
No. Ontario judges typically do not accept pleas during first appearances.
This pre-trial hearing is reserved for certain indictable offences that carry a maximum sentence of 14 or more years’ incarceration. Its purpose is to help the court determine whether the Crown has enough evidence to support a potential conviction.
The Ontario Court of Justice adjudicates about 95% of Ontario’s criminal court cases. The Superior Court of Justice typically handles only the most serious indictable cases.
Yes. The Crown can appeal acquittals and lenient sentencing decisions.
