SUCCESSFUL CASE DECISIONS

• R. v. A.S.

  The client was charged with impaired driving and driving over the legal limit. The matter was set for trial. On the day of trial, the crown dropped the charges leaving the client with no conviction and no criminal record.

• R. v. J.C.

  The client was charged with impaired driving and failing or refusing to comply with a demand. The matter was set for trial and I was able to determine the client's Charter rights were infringed and submitted a Charter notice to the Crown. As a result, the Crown decided to only proceed at trial on the impaired charged, not the failure to comply. At trial, there was a lack of evidence in the Crown's case to prove the elements of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt. The client was acquitted.

• R. v. C.G.

  The client was charged with two counts of simple assault arising out of a fight that occurred in the context of a customer service situation. Though the allegation was serious, I negotiated to have the client participate in a diversion program. Upon successful completion of the diversion program, the charge was dropped, leaving the client with no criminal record.

• R. v. D.S.

  The client was charged with aggravated assault. The offence involved essentially what was a fight outside of a bar. The complainant's injuries were very serious. The matter proceeded all the way to trial. Just before the trial was to start, the crown offered the client a plea to the lesser included offence of simple assault (section 266 of the Criminal Code). The client was able to avoid a jail sentence (penitentiary term), which the client would have been facing if he had been tried and convicted. This was an amazing outcome for a very serious matter.

• R. v. J.K.

  The client was charged with arson and mischief (damage to property over $5000). The matter was serious, as there was significant damage done to the property. At first, the crown was looking for a jail sentence if the client would have been convicted or pled guilty. However, after several back and forth negotiations with the crown, I was able to secure a non-custodial (no jail) sentence for the client.

• R. v. D.M.

  The client was charged with criminal harassment. I approached the crown with resolution that would leave the client without a conviction. The client entered into a common-law peace bond with conditions that included counselling for a period of one year and the charge was withdrawn.

• R. v. J.B.

  The client was charged with theft under $5000, mischief, and robbery. The client was a youth at the time offence and suffered from mental illnesses. After discussions with the crown regarding early case resolution, the crown agreed to allow the client to divert to the mental health diversion program to resolve these charges. Upon completion of the mental health diversion program, all the charges were withdrawn.

• R. v. T.J.

  The client was charged with several property related criminal offences. Upon review of the disclosure, I was able to negotiate with the crown and establish for them that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction. The crown agreed, and the charges were all dropped.

• R. v. M.A.

  The client was charged with assault with a weapon, mischief, and unlawfully being in a dwelling house. The circumstances of the allegation were that the young person who was gainfully employed, was involved in a relationship that was tumultuous. I was able to explain the situation to the crown prosecutor, showing that the client was the real victim and had the charges dropped upon restitution being paid for damage to some of complainant's property. This was the best case scenario outcome that was achieved as the client's employment would have been at risk with a criminal record.

• R. v. M.H.

  The client was charged with assault with a weapon and uttering threats. The crown was approached to see if they would be willing to resolve the matter by way of a peace bond. Given that the client had a prior one in 2016, they were not inclined to do so. However, they did agree to an informal resolution. The client was required to attend counseling and provide proof of completion of the sessions. Once she had done so, the charges against her were withdrawn.

• R. v. S.M.

  The client was charged on three different dockets. The charges included assault, assault with a weapon and uttering threats on the first. The second was for two counts of mischief, two counts mischief to property under $5000, and failing to comply. The last was for failing to attend. When we received his legal aid certificate, the client was in custody. He pleaded guilty to assault, one count of mischief to property under $5000, failing to comply, and failing to appear. The remaining charges were withdrawn. He had 14 days of pre-trial custody and was released on time served.

• R. v. N.I.

  The client was charged with an offence under the Child Welfare act. I was able to work with the client to obtain relevant documentation in order to negotiate a complete withdrawal of the charge.

• R. v. S.M.

  The client was charged with break and enter and mischief causing damage to property under $5000. The client would have faced very serious consequences to employment if convicted. I worked tirelessly to finally convince the crown prosecutor that the charges should be withdrawn outright. The client was left without a criminal record.

• R. v. R.S.

  The client was charged with two counts of breaching the conditions of a probation order, two counts of breaching a Protection Against Family Violence Act order (EPO) and two counts of failing to appear at court. I reviewed the file and determined that the allegations had really been subsumed within the facts associated with the client's previous sentence. I wrote to the crown to point out the issue, and all of the charges were brought forward into court and withdrawn (dropped) by the crown.

• R. v. C.W.

  The client had a matter that was at warrant status from years prior. It related to a failure to appear at court for an amendment to a conditional sentence order. It took a lot of investigating and phone calls to achieve the result of having the charge dismissed.

• R. v. D.N.

  The client was charged with three separate sets of charges. One charge was for assault, and the remaining two were for failing to appear at court. The client plead guilty to the two counts of failing to appear for court, and the crown agreed to drop the assault charge. The crown prosecutor asked the judge to sentence the client to a fine. I argued that the client should receive a conditional discharge, which would leave the client without a criminal conviction after a certain period of time. The court agreed with my submissions, and the client was granted a conditional discharge.

• R. v. M.B.

  The client was charged with four counts of failing to comply with a protection order under the Protection Against Family Violence Act. I reviewed the disclosure and determined that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction. I spoke with the prosecutor who agreed that there was no chance of success, and agreed to withdraw the charges. The client was left without a criminal conviction.

• R. v. K.N.

  The client was charged with two different traffic violations: failing to proceed safely after stopping through an intersection and careless driving. I worked with the client to present a package of information and documentation to the crown to resolve the tickets in the best possible way so that the client did not receive significant demerits. I was able to convince the prosecutor to reduce the fine amounts for the one ticket, and then to reduce the remaining ticket to a different infraction which resulted in less than half of the demerits.

• R. v. H.L.

  The client was charged with theft under $5000. After having discussions with the crown, they agreed to refer the matter to Alternative Measures Program. The matter was withdrawn upon completion of the program. The client was left with no criminal record.

• R. v. P.H.

  The client was charged with impaired operation and operation at or over 0.08. I worked closely with the client After discussions with the crown, they agreed to withdraw the charge.

• R. v. P.S.

  The client was charged with assault causing bodily harm against one complainant, and assault against another. The charges arose during an altercation between the parties who were strangers to each other. One of the complainants alleged that the client assaulted them, and in so doing cause injury (broken ribs). Upon review of disclosure, I was able to find discrepancies in the statements the complainants gave to police. Once I had that information, I met with the crown prosecutor to negotiate resolution of the matter. My goal was to leave my client with no criminal record/no conviction so that the matter would not impact employment. After meeting with the crown, they agreed that although they were not originally going to consider resolution of the matter by way of a referral to Alternative Measures (primarily due to the seriousness of the assault causing bodily harm charge), after hearing my pitch, they would refer the matter. The client was referred to the Alternative Measures program, and after successful completion, the charges were withdrawn, leaving my client with no criminal record/no conviction.

• R. v. D.G.

  The client was charged with impaired driving and driving at or over 0.08mg/% (blood alcohol concentration). I received and reviewed disclosure, determining that there were potential triable issues. Before the matter reached any substantive court appearances, the charges were dropped by the crown.

• R. v. M.R.

  The client was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference with a minor. The matter arose out of a lengthy family law dispute. The matter proceeded to a preliminary inquiry. At the preliminary inquiry, I was able to convince the crown prosecutor that they could not proceed on one of the several charges. They agreed, and at the preliminary inquiry, that charge was withdrawn. The remaining charges proceeded from the preliminary inquiry on to trial. At the preliminary I was able to make a lot of headway during my cross-examination of the complainants. There was a lot of valuable evidence that would have been useful at the trial of the matter. The matter was set for trial with a judge sitting alone at the Court of Queen's Bench. After a review of the evidence, the crown agreed to drop the charges. The client was left without a conviction.

• R. v. B.S.

  The client was charged with theft under $5000 and arose in a grocery store (shoplifting). I successfully had the client referred to the Alternative Measures program, despite there having been a related referral in the past. The client completed the program, and the charge was dropped (withdrawn) by the crown. That left the client with no criminal record/no conviction.

• R. v. C.D.

  The client was charged with an assault. The allegation is that the parties were in a dispute (they were strangers to each other) and that the client had assaulted the complainant. I was able to thoroughly review the disclosure, and determined there were significant issues with the reasonable likelihood of conviction (part of the test the crown must meet to prosecute the matter). I presented my analysis to the crown during an early case resolution meeting. The crown agreed to withdraw the charge outright. This left my client with no criminal record and no conviction.