Paralegal Services in Ontario Criminal Courts
Ontario is one of the few jurisdictions where paralegals are independent legal professionals. Accordingly, they can represent people in some types of criminal matters. Specifically, Spectrum Paralegal can represent you in summary conviction criminal offences, which are criminal offences where the maximum punishment is less than six months of imprisonment. Some common criminal charges of this sort are:
- Domestic assault
- Dangerous driving
- Common assault
- Fraud for under $5,000
- Mischief for under $5,000
- Shoplifting (for less than $5,000)
- Possession of under 5mg of illicit substances
- Being in a bawdy house
Click above to learn more. Please feel free to contact us to see whether you can retain a paralegal to fight your particular criminal charge.
The Criminal Defence Paralegal
Apart from general differences between paralegals in lawyers, there are differences specific to criminal defence paralegals and lawyers. In Ontario Criminal Courts, a paralegal:
- May need you to appear with him or her in Criminal Court appearances
- Cannot accept legal aid
- The court can exclude a paralegal from representing you in criminal proceedings if the judge considers him or her incompetent.
The goals of criminal defence
Our paralegal’s primary goal would be to help you avoid a criminal record since this can adversely impact your future employment opportunities, travel ability, and other aspects of life. This means that we look to address your criminal charge in one of the following ways:
- Diversion. This is an outcome that is usually reached by negotiations with the prosecution. If a diversion is granted, you, of course, do not get a criminal record. In addition, you do not enter a guilty or not guilty plea, and the criminal charge is withdrawn entirely if and when you complete certain conditions, such as donating a certain sum of money or doing volunteer work.
- Conditional discharge. This is similar, to some extent, to a diversion, except you would usually plead guilty, and have to comply with the condition of probation order during a certain period.
- Acquittal. You would be acquitted if you were found not guilty after a complete criminal trial, with the examination of witnesses and evidence.
How we work
No matter which goal we may be pursuing in our criminal defence, we, of course, aim to find weaknesses and inconsistencies in the case against you. Most importantly, this certainly helps us negotiate the best possible settlement, as well as to form the most effective criminal defence.
Some strategies we may use to significantly improve your criminal defence include:
- Request police reports related to the complainant. Does the person who accused you have a record of trouble-making?
- Request the complainant’s medical history. Could there be some medications or conditions that caused the complaint?
- Analyze every witness statement in detail, looking for contradictions and logical inconsistencies, and finally
- Analyze the complaint: did the complainant behave reasonably given his or her version of events?
Additional Resources
- Browse our blog on the topic of criminal defence
- See our clients’ testimonials about our criminal defence paralegal services, and, finally,
- Browse our criminal defence FAQs.
Contact us whenever you need help.
