Your Options if Charged With A Criminal Offence?

What are your options if charged with a criminal offence? If you are being questioned by police in Canada you must properly identify yourself. If you give the police a false name or address, or both, thinking that doing so will help you avoid getting arrested you are mistaken.

Police have numerous ways and means to establish your identity and, if you have given police a false name, in Canada, you can be charged with Obstruct Police or Public Mischief or perhaps even Obstruct Justice.

If you are being questioned by police by all means identify yourself properly and be cooperative. There is no benefit to you whatsoever in being obstructionist. If you have been arrested police have the right to obtain your finger prints. Again, do not resist.

The Right to Remain Silent/Admissions

Beyond that you have the right to remain silent. Do not convict yourself by making admissions. Many times a person who is alleged to have committed an offence will offer up her/his version of what happened and, in doing so, unwittingly provides the police with an admission that they have done what a complainant alleges that person has done.

An admission can be introduced as evidence against you in court. Essentially you have admitted doing what the complainant alleges that you did. Unless you can satisfy the court that your admission was obtained illegally by police, an admission dramatically increases the probability of conviction.

If you have made an admission after police advise you of your right to remain silent, you will be under considerable pressure, practically speaking, of offering the court a guilty plea. A plea of guilty means you will be convicted of the charge if you are making that plea voluntarily.

Release Conditions

If police believe that there are reasonable grounds to believe that you have committed an offense, you will be charged with the offence which police believe is appropriate in the circumstances. Depending upon the seriousness of the allegations and also depending upon whether you already have a criminal record, you may be released immediately from the police station or, alternatively, especially if you already have a criminal record, you may be held for a bail hearing. Under both forms of release, conditions will be imposed upon you that you must abide by until the charge or charges against you have been resolved by a court.

Release conditions can be onerous and you may think they are unfair. However, if you breach or disobey any of those conditions, doing so is a criminal offence by itself. Courts and police take these kinds of charges more seriously because it means that you have intentionally disobeyed the terms of your release. If your conditions have been imposed at a bail hearing, a breach of those conditions also means that you have disobeyed a court order.

Guilty Plea or Trial

Trials can be expensive if you have hired a lawyer to defend you. This is the case because it takes a substantial amount of time for lawyers to prepare for a trial. Accordingly, you may be under some pressure to plead guilty at an early stage. Whether you plead guilty or elect to go to trial is discussed in more detail in the video below.

Understand your rights and how the legal process unfolds. Short video below explains the process that unfolds after arrest in Canada.

I hope this content has been helpful. To receive periodic updates to the content in this series please fill in your name and best email in the form below. I look forward to having you on my list of subscribers. Please note that the content on this platform is not intended as legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. The material is for educational purposes only and, if you are facing legal issues, you should consult with a lawyer in your area who can familiarize herself/himself with your particular set of circumstances and advise you as to how the law in that jurisdiction applies in that set of circumstances.

To Your Limitless Success,

Grant Edward Rayner*

If you are separating from your spouse in the Upper St. John River Valley of New Brunswick, call Langdon Law at 506.497.2560 for a consultation. Offices in Woodstock, Hartland and Florenceville-Bristol to serve you.

*Grant is a member of the Law Society of Ontario. He has permission from the Law Society of New Brunswick to practice as a visiting lawyer with the firm Langdon Law pending the transfer of his membership with the Law Society in Ontario to the Law Society of New Brunswick.