first time charged?
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN CHARGED
BEFORE WE BEGIN, don’t panic, you’re not alone. We’ll help you get through this!
Remember that being charged is not the same thing as being a “criminal.” It only means someone made an allegation against you. As for how the pending charge will impact your Criminal Record, you can find answers to the question here.
Know that the system is designed to resolve matters and avoid trials. In fact, most matters resolve with both sides agreeing what the appropriate resolution is.
Worried about your First Court Date? Don’t be! It’s not a trial, no witnesses, no police. We’ll explain more about this below under Your First Court Appearance.
In the meantime, are you thinking about hiring a lawyer? The Best Lawyer? If so, your lawyer will go to court for you. That’s right! If you have a lawyer, you may never even step into a courthouse (virtually or otherwise).
So far so good, right? Now we’re ready to dig a little deeper into the process of responding to a criminal charge and your first court date. But before we cover what your first court appearance is all about, let’s take a look at Undertakings and Release Orders.
Why? Because anyone charged will be on one. These documents have mandatory dates for your first court appearance and fingerprinting (if not already done) as well as any terms you’re required to follow while you fight the charge.
UNDERTAKINGS AND RELEASE ORDERS (RECOGNIZANCES)
When someone is charged, nine times out of 10, that person is going to be released while his or her charges are before the court.
Most people are released by police after they have been charged. When that’s the case, they will be given a document called an Undertaking.
This is the document that your first court appearance is on. It will also have a date for fingerprinting and conditions of release. Go ahead and grab your copy, we’re going to highlight some important points.
The undertaking has three pages. For our purposes, we need only need the first two.
On the first page under “3. Charge(s)” is where you’ll find, well, your charges.
On the first page under “4. Mandatory Conditions” is where you’ll find your first court date. If your charges are in London and you’re an adult, your matter is in courtroom 4 and at 9:30 am. If you’re a youth, courtroom 1 at 9:30 am. It should be on a Monday as well. (More on how I know this in the following section.
We’re going to jump to the second page, bottom. You’ll see “6. Appearances for the purposes of the Identification of Criminals Act” in a black heading. This is where you will find your date for fingerprints and photographs. It is usually done at the police station and fairly quick. Everyone, no matter the charge, has to do it. If this was already done at the time of your arrest, it should be blank.
Your conditions while released are set out beginning back on the first page under “5. Additional Conditions”. Common conditions are to notify police of a change of address (c), not to communicate with a person or persons (d), and not to go to a certain place (e). Anything left blank does not apply. Also, pay attention to (l). Police will use this to put terms in that don’t neatly fit into the ones covered.
Now on to Release Orders (Recognizances). If police feel that person may skip court, re-offend, or that their crime was extreme (think robbery with a firearm, violent sexual offence, murder) they will likely be held to appear before a Justice of the Peace (sometimes a judge) who will determine if that person needs to remain in custody.
When this happens, there’s still a good chance that the Crown and defence will agree on release and the appropriate terms. If so, a Release Order is issued. If there is no agreement, a bail hearing will have to be held where the Crown and defence make submissions to a Justice of the Peace as to why the person should be held/released. If released, a Release Order will be issued; if not, the accused will remain in custody until his or her matter is resolved.
A Release Order is similar to an Undertaking save for two things:
This form of release explicitly allows for a surety. A surety is someone who is promising the court to keep an eye on the accused and call police if a term is breached.
There may be a “Financial Obligation”. This means that the accused and/or the surety may be required to promise to pay an amount of money if the accused does not follow their terms.
YOUR FIRST COURT APPEARANCE
The first court appearance the police (or court) gave you, is not your trial, a hearing, or anything of the sort. And, if you have a lawyer, you likely won’t have to go. In fact, you may never even have to step into a courtroom, virtually or otherwise!
In order to understand what your first court appearance is about, you need to understand what the court expects from anyone charged with a criminal offence.
Anyone charged with a criminal offence is expected to go through a series of steps. These steps are designed to help resolve criminal matters without the need to go through a resource-intensive trial.
Remember at the beginning how we told you the whole system is designed to resolve matters without a trial? This is what we were talking about.
So what are the steps?
1. Get your Disclosure.
2. Meet with the Crown (prosecutors) in a Crown Pre-Trial or a Resolution Meeting.
3. Meet with the Crown and a Judge in a Judicial Pre-Trial.
4. Set dates for pre-trial applications (if necessary), a Preliminary Inquiry (if eligible), and a trial.
At the next date, your lawyer may advise the court that disclosure was received and reviewed with you and that now he or she needs an opportunity to meet with the Crown (i.e., the Crown Pre-Trial/Resolution Meeting.) Again, a return date will be offered for an update.
These appearances continue until a date for a guilty plea or a trial is set.
Looking for more details on your First Court Appearance?
If you’re looking for more information on your First Court Appearance, we can use the example of a criminal charge out of London, Ontario.
In London, for example, remand court is in courtroom four. The day of the week your matter appears on is determined by your last name, unless you’re facing drug charges. Drugs are handled on Fridays. If you are co-accused with someone, your matter may appear on whatever date your co-accused’s last name falls on.
Mon: A – C
Tue: D – K
Wed: L – P
Thu: Q – Z
Fri: Federal Matters (Drugs/CDSA)
While remand courts generally open at 9:00 am or 9:30 am, (9:30 am in London) they usually have a lot of people on their list of matters to be spoken to; therefore, the court can run anywhere from an hour or two all the way to the end of the work day. (London’s remand court is usually a day-long affair.)
Lawyer will speak to their client’s matters first (usually based on their seniority). Afterwards, self-represented individuals and those being helped by duty counsel lawyers will speak. As the day goes by, you may see a mix of lawyers and self-represented individuals speaking.
What's actually said on your first court date?
An example of what you can expect to hear at your first court appearance is set out below:
Lawyer: “Good morning Your Worship” (that’s what we call a Justice of the Peace.)
Lawyer: “I have the matter of John Doe found at line 30 of the docket” (the docket being the list of people and their matters in that court, on that day.)
Lawyer: “I have been retained by Mr. Doe”(retained = hired). He would like his matter to proceed in English and the reading of his charges can be waived.”
Lawyer: “I have ordered disclosure from the Crown. Can I return in six weeks? This will provide the Crown an opportunity to provide me with the disclosure and for me to review it with my client.”
Justice of the Peace: “Excellent. Mr. Lawyer is noted as counsel for Mr. Doe. This matter will return in six weeks on January 26, 2025 in this court at 9:30 am for the receipt and review of disclosure. Mr. Lawyer, if that is your only matter, you may be excused.”
can i get her to drop the charges?
This is probably the most common question we get in domestic-related charged.
The short answer is “no” followed by a “but”.
The answer is “no” because unlike what we see in Hollywood, it’s not the complainant that lays the charge. Police are the ones that “press” charges when they have reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed.
For example, if your spouse called 911, police show up, and your spouse tells police you hit her, the police now have the grounds to believe you committed the offence of assault (section 266) and will likely lay the charge.
From this point on, your spouse is a witness and it will ultimately be up to the Crown (prosecutor) to decide whether or not to proceed with the charge. Your spouse can tell the Crown, “I want the charges dropped; I won’t cooperate.” However, the Crown can proceed by issuing a subpoena to her which is a legal document telling a witness that you must show; that failing to do so could lead to charges being laid against you!
Here’s the “but”:
If the Crown knows their witness—potentially their only witness—is going to be difficult on the stand, they may be forced to consider whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction.
If there is no reasonable prospect of conviction, then the Crown may consider offering a Peace Bond or dropping the charges altogether.
So what’s the lesson from this? If the complainant/victim does not want the charges to go ahead, they should contact the Crown’s office and let the Crown know their wishes. Alternatively, they can do so through Victim Services as well.
Be prepared for a wait: the charges are unlikely to be dropped in the near future.
If police are asking you for a statement, it is important you speak with us, or another criminal defence lawyer first!
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