Many people facing charges know from the beginning that they want to resolve their charges—but understanding all of the different resolution possibilities can be confusing, and reaching a resolution that is fair and fits your circumstances can be difficult.
Let’s consider the hypothetical scenario of a person who was in a bar fight and has been charged with assault causing bodily harm and mischief, and what the resolution process might look like with and without a lawyer.
Without a lawyer:
This person decides that they want to plead guilty and get things over with. They tell this to the Crown prosecutor, who offers them a certain sentence, let’s say 1 year of probation. At Court, they plead guilty to all of the charges and agree with what the Crown prosecutor offered as a sentence. In this example, the person is sentenced to 1 year of probation. This person dealt with things quickly, but now has a criminal record which shows they were convicted of assault causing bodily harm and mischief.
With a lawyer’s help:
In the second version of this scenario, this same person wants to plead guilty and resolve things, but they hire a lawyer to help explore all of their options before moving forward.
First, the lawyer will contact the Crown prosecutor to get the disclosure (the evidence the Crown prosecutor would rely on at trial). The lawyer looks through this disclosure and sees where the strengths and weaknesses of the Crown’s case are. Let’s say that in this case, the disclosure shows that the other person in the bar fight only had a minor scrape on them, and that the table didn’t end up being actually broken, it just needed to be reassembled.
The lawyer will research other cases to determine the usual sentence range for similar charges to get a better sense of the possible outcomes. They will also determine the available sentence types for these charges (for example, probation, conditional sentence orders, discharges, etc.). The lawyer will speak with the person about their personal circumstances—in this example, this person has no criminal record and was dealing with some mental health concerns when the fight happened, but took steps to get help right away and has made a lot of progress.
Armed with that information, the lawyer will begin negotiations with the Crown to seek the best and most fair resolution. If the lawyer and the Crown can come to a resolution that is fair and that the person agrees to, this results in a joint submission. The lawyer will attend Court and present the joint submission to the Judge by explaining the circumstances of the person and the charges, and ask them to accept the joint submission. In this example, after negotiations the Crown and lawyer both agreed that a fair resolution was a guilty plea to assault (instead of assault causing bodily harm and mischief), and a 6 month conditional discharge which would not result in a criminal record, and which includes a condition to continue going to counselling to support the person’s progress.
Or, if the negotiations don’t result in something that the lawyer or person thinks is fair and fitting, the next step can be a contested sentencing. In this example, let’s say the Crown prosecutor is willing to allow the same guilty plea to assault only (not assault causing bodily harm and mischief), but they can’t agree to the sentence. In that case, the Crown and lawyer can have a contested sentencing in front of a Judge where both sides argue the case law, the circumstances of the charges, and the circumstances of the person, and the Judge decides the sentence.
Conclusion: Do I really need a lawyer?
In the scenario above, the outcome was better with a lawyer representing the person. This will not always be the case, sometimes the Crown prosecutor’s first offer will be something very fair, but many times the resolution can be improved with more information and negotiation.
Hiring a lawyer means that you have guidance on how the process works and the potential outcomes. It also means you have someone in your corner who is knowledgeable and experienced fighting for your best interests, instead of you needing to navigate a complex system alone and hoping that the outcome was the best one.
If you are seeking legal representation and would like to discuss your file, the lawyers at Lakefield LLP would be more than happy to talk to you and work with you.
The information in this article does not constitute legal advice. The law may have changed since this article was first published. You should consult with your lawyer to confirm the current state of the law and obtain advice specific to your situation.