Pre-Charge Processes

What is precharge legal advice and why is it important? Pre-Charge legal advice involves the consultation of a criminal lawyer at the early stages of an investigation. If you have been involved in illegal activity or the police have identified you as a suspect of a crime, you should not wait until you are arrested to speak to a lawyer. Rather, ...

In Canada, the police can arrest you both with a warrant and without a warrant. Arrest with a warrant: When the police are arresting you with a warrant, it means that they have already gone through the preliminary process of laying an information or of formally charging you with an offence before a justice of the peace or a judge. After laying the information, ...

After you are arrested you should write down everything that happened in as much detail as possible. This will help you to remember the events surrounding your arrest when you go to trial, and it will also help to ensure that no important details are missed when you are reviewing your matter with your criminal defence lawyer. If you were arrested and released, you ...

The police are authorized to stop you and question you for investigative purposes when they reasonably suspect that you have committed a crime, are about to commit a crime, or when they see you committing a crime. If they have stopped you, you are required to identify yourself by providing your name, address, and date of birth if they request that you do so. ...

Many people who have been accused of committing a crime believe that if they do not provide a statement to the police that they will look guilty, or as though they have something to hide. However, choosing to refrain from speaking to the police is a fundamental right that is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For this reason, no adverse inference can ...

There is no such thing as providing a police officer a statement that is “off the record.” While some statements given to the police before you are given your right to counsel may not be used against you in trial, anything you say to a police officer is potentially “on the record.” That is, anything you say to a police officer, at any time and ...

If you have been arrested or are being investigated for an offence, you are not required to give a statement to the police. You have a constitutionally protected right to silence that prevents you from being forced to make self-incriminating statements. If the police have asked you to participate in an investigation by making a statement, your first step should be to seek legal advice. ...

If you are under investigation by the police, it does not mean you will necessarily be charged or found guilty of a criminal offence, but you do need to take the matter seriously and take steps to protect yourself. At this point in the process, there is a significant information imbalance between you and the police because you may not know the full scope of ...