Thank you for joining me today I going to be talking about the court process for a typical theft charge how a sap proceeds through the court system? What are the general steps that a lawyer does in the file? And how long are the timelines if you decide to say plead guilty versus going to trial, these, these are very important concepts that a client needs to know very early on. And throughout the case, we’re constantly explained the court process too. So I always like to give a hypothetical. So let’s say you’re charged with theft today by the police, the police arrest you. And let’s say they release you on a promise to appear or an officer charged undertaking, the police are going to give you a court date in the interior court of justice on that paper that you received that’s scheduled three to six weeks approximately down the road, hopefully, you’re going to retain a lawyer, and you so you come to our firm and you retain us, you hire us. And what we do immediately, in addition to going over all through your consultation and having extensive discussions with you, is we order the disclosure. That is all of the evidence against you the witness statements, the police reports notes, every scrap and scintilla of evidence that the police have against you. They provide that to the crown attorney. And the crown is expected to provide that to us pursuant to a case called Regina and stinchcombe, which is a Supreme Court of Canada decision. That is your right to receive full disclosure. Now, when I receive that document, all those documents which can be small, or it could be a huge stuffed case mean could be dozens and dozens of pages or literally 1000s of pages depending on the complexity of the case. I review those carefully. And I figure out the odds of winning the case what I think the crown is going to offer, can I get this withdrawn? What are all the legal issues? What recommendations Should I make to the client, I then start meeting with you. And reviewing all these things and talking about the case, receiving your full version of events, including in writing, have you independently review the disclosure on make notes. And ultimately, I provide you with our legal opinion about the every aspect of the case that can often require many meetings on a simple case that might take one or two on a complex case, it could take dozens of meetings literally. I’ve represented thefts involving, you know, hundreds of 1000s of dollars before with 1000s of documents. So once we complete that process, we are in a position to meet with the crown that’s called a crown pre trial. So I start meeting with the crown with your instructions, you may have instructed me like if they don’t offer me a great deal. If they don’t withdraw the charge, or offer me a peace bond or something I want to head to trial or look like you’ve told me it’s unwinnable? Let’s just negotiate the best deal I can it really depends. Or it’s a 5050 case, we’re waiting to see what the offer is for the crown. So I meet with the crown, again, one or more meanings to have all of these discussions. We’re going to discuss resolution, what was the crown best offer? I’m trying to convince them or withdraw the charge. I’m trying to convince them to get a conditional discharge, or the crowd is not playing ball. Look, it’s I got a 5050 shot shot of winning Mr. Cruz is heading to trial because I’m asking for jail for three years. It’s a serious matter. Well, after trial we go. So in that case, I’m discussing all trial management issues with the crown witnesses, the crowns are calling legal issues, factual issues, what applications am I bringing what applications the crowns bringing? How long is the trial, going to take a day, two days a month depends on the complexity of the case, obviously. So we complete those discussions and I report back to you and you provide me with your instructions. Work static there, we’re trying to charge you know, we’ve already attended at our first appearance pursued the designation it went over 12 weeks, which is automatic in the province. Now every case goes over during COVID. And probably after COVID to 12 weeks, we can bring the matter for get withdrawn, or the crowds offers a great deal which we’re taking, they’re giving us a conditional discharge or a peace bond even better. With a withdrawal conditional discharge of weights record, we can bring the matter forward and get that done. We might need a judicial pre trial to do that to get approval on it, which I’ll talk about more further. So don’t worry the fact that the court system it automatically goes over 12 weeks and the court date. That’s just a reporting mechanism. It’s just me showing up in court and saying oh Jake, just as a piece Look, this is the stage we’re at the file, we need further ways to complete the next steps. It’s kind of a useless anachronistic system. They really should probably get rid of it. I critique that and other videos that I do. I’ve done which you should read, they really could replace that replace it with just having Email reporting system, hey, this is the steps in the file, this will be completed, okay, and the just the piece emails back, okay? give you six more weeks to do that. So don’t worry about that it went over 12 weeks now. So in other words, we can resolve this file at any time anytime after we received disclosure, and we’ve reviewed it with you and I’ve met with the crown. If you want to plead guilty, I can do that at any time, that process could take anywhere from you know, shortly after the first appearance to up to five months, depending on the work that needs to be done in the file, it really depends. So we control that process. By the way, we’re in the sense that we can plead guilty when we want, or you’re heading to trial. So what happens if you head to trial? So I need to first of all, complete all my meetings with the crown, receive all your instructions know all of the legal issues, factual issues, estimate court time, now I need to meet with a judge. That’s the next step before you set a trial date. That’s called a judicial pre trial. It’s a meeting with the crown, myself, and a judge, not the trial judge by the way, and independent judges not during the trial, we’re going to discuss all aspects of the trial, the witnesses will be called applications to need to be brought court time, we need to there’s limited judicial resources and we need to properly estimate trial time. And sometimes it requires more than one jitter Chapelle sometimes we can resolve it all at once. But after we have all the judges input the crowd in mind proper essence of a trial time, knowing how the trial is going to unfold with all the witnesses, including witnesses, I’m going to call including applications etc. We’re in a position set the trial date. So when when are we really in a position to set a trial date? Well, bear in mind that was a first appearance, it went over to second appearance 12 weeks. In a perfect world, we might be in a position to set a trial date. By the second appearance. That’s kind of be a rarity, though I might add, oftentimes we don’t receive disclosure till after the first parents were likely you’re looking at the four to five months in sometimes even longer if it’s a complicated case where there’s missing disclosure. But so so after that judicial Patria, which say we had it four months in at the next court appearance, we I reach out to the trial coordinator, Sophos secure five trial dates, it’s a complex case, for example. And we go and set that on the record. Now when is that trial going to be? That’s very important. So it really depends on the county, we have smaller counties with less crime. In Ontario, we can get a quick trial date, you might be able to get a trial date in a small county very ambitiously, and this might be overstating it. six to seven months after your first appearance, that’s a rarity, but sometimes doable. In more bit and busier counties like Toronto, Brampton, Ottawa, you name it, these busier counties, they’re they’re very their courts are booked, you’re going to be looking at getting a trial date. Oh, she’s in a busy county 12 to 15, sometimes even up to 18 months down the road, I suppose the average I’m going to say 12 to 15, I’m going to say from from the time your first appearance, bear in mind, in Ontario, they carry quarter justice, your trial is supposed to be completed within 18 months of the date of arrest, or you could have a delay application, depending on whether delay was caused by defense counsel or not. So it’s all over the map in terms of trials maximum 18. Or say that’s more unusual, minimum, which is really ambitious, I shouldn’t even say this six to seven months more usual 12 to 15 months, I’ve seen some counties nine, if you told me a county, I could tell you when they’re setting the day, it’s because our firm appears in a lot. We have multiple offices and lawyers, so we pay a lot of counties. So that’s a trial. If we go to trial, there’s a lot of preparation involved a lot of hours, you can read about that in other videos about the trial process. And we’ll get into that, for resolution that can take place early on. If we need to do counseling, though, because we’re getting a peace plan. This is great. Your client just needs to calcium but that’s going to take three months. While we can we can enter the peace of mind at the end of three months. So again, don’t worry about the remand system. That’s just reporting mechanism. All the work takes place between the court dates in the judges office in the Crown’s office with me and in my office with you and me doing diligent preparation on your file. Now, that is for a theft under $5,000 charge which I just mentioned. If it’s a more complicated theft over 5000 the crowd can elect summarily which is still the same court process. It The elect plane statement though it gives you other rights, it gives you greater rights, you can elect to do elected be try the interior Court of Justice, which is the same process I just went over. Or you can elect to have a jury trial, or judge alone trial in the higher court with a Superior Court of Justice. The timeline is going to be extended for the trial date, then what’s going to happen is you’re going to go through the same steps I mentioned in the charity Court of Justice, get all your disclosure, have all your meetings, you know, ready to elect up to the higher court, you’re then going to elect up, you’re going to file an election document to the higher court, the matter is going to get transferred this period of Court of Justice, either for jury or judge alone trial. What are the timelines there? Well, again, depends on the county. And it depends whether it’s a jury or Judge loanshark trial, jury trials are probably going to be farther down the low road, the ultimate maximum timeline for the Superior Court of Justice, they’re supposed to try your cases within 36 months of the day, the rest, you probably get a trial before then it depending on the county, but I’m going to say okay, let’s let’s just go through this. Let’s say you’re six months in this in the Ontario Court of Justice, it gets moved over the spirit court justice, you might get a trial date within 12 months now we’re up to 18 months or might even be longer. So that’s a less busy County, busier county it’s going to take longer, I have seen situations where tried, trials don’t take place even up to 36 months. If it extends beyond 36 months. The issue is whether there’s a delay argument again covered another video I will go over that. All of these little sub topics that I talked about the first appearance going over designation, Superior Court of Justice, elections, trial process, judicial pre trials, crown pre trials, watch my other videos on that because I break each one down. Today I just wanted to give you an overview. And it’s something that clients need to understand things take a long time, it just doesn’t happen overnight. Even if you plead guilty. There’s a lot of steps that need to take place so we can get you the best possible deal if I’m right, put it that way. Avoid jail, avoid a record where we can and and again trials take time to the courts are packed. That that’s the bottom line. So I hope you got some useful information today about the typical staff charge. Thank you for watching our video, we are absolutely committed to bringing you the best possible criminal and DUI educational videos. If you found this video helpful, please like it and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 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