Representing Yourself in Court Without a Lawyer

After being arrested, charged and released for impaired driving or other criminal offence, the accused will have received and signed a “Promise to Appear” document.

The Promise to Appear is a legal document where the accused has promised that they, “will appear in court to answer to the charges”.

The police may placed conditions to the release in a document attached to it referred to as an “Undertaking”.

Where the accused is released on a “Promise to Appear” the police may add conditions on to the release referred to as an “Undertaking”.

Where the accused is not released from custody a bail hearing is held.

Undertaking conditions may include:

• not to consume alcohol or drugs
• report to the police station regularly
• not to communicate with certain people
• travel restrictions

Where the accused wishes to be released from custody they must agree to follow the terms of the undertaking.

Where they refuse they may be held in custody for a bail hearing.

The accused is given a court date on the Promise to Appear, and must appear in person on the time and location specified.

Where the accused misses the date they can be charged with the criminal offences of:

• fail to attend court, and/or
• failure to appear for fingerprints & photographs

Upon arrest the accused is held in jail pending a bail hearing before any release is considered.

The promise to appear may also require the accused to appear for fingerprinting & photographs.

Where the accused does not appear, they can be charged with the criminal offence of “Failure to Appear for Fingerprints & Photographs“.

Where an accused is charged with failing to appear they can be held in custody pending a .

Many times the accused is released from custody with conditions.

Without the assistance of a lawyer the conditions of a promise to appear, undertaking and bail order remain until after the first court appearance.

Where the accused has retained a criminal lawyer, the lawyer can intervene to change court dates or even the conditions of the release.

If strict bail conditions have been imposed, a criminal lawyer can apply for a bail variance.

In some cases, a criminal defence lawyer can call the crown attorney to discuss your case and even resolve the case before the first court date.

Meaning fingerprinting, photographs and a criminal record can be avoided all together.

It’s better NOT to have your records on the police computer system (CPIC), as this can result in future complications for:

• travel
• volunteering
• employment, or
• applying for a liquor licences with the LCBO

Avoiding having any sort of public record with the police should be avoided wherever possible.

The court date on the Promise to Appear is for the accused to plead guilty or not guilty before a judge, it is not a trial date.

Where the accused does not have a lawyer, the court will record that the accused is a “self represented litigant”.

Where the accused is unrepresented they will need to attend this date in person or via Zoom Video Call (during the Covid-19 pandemic).

After the accused’s plea, the case will be adjourned for approx 5 to 7 weeks depending upon the court’s schedule.

When the accused appears in person at the first court date, the are said to be “attorning to the jurisdiction of the court”.

Attorning to the jurisdiction means that

“you acknowledge being the person charged and accept that you need to participate in the court proceedings.”

An unrepresented accused must appear in person.  An accused represented by a criminal defence lawyer does NOT have to appear in court, as the lawyer appears on their behalf.

Cases can be dismissed because of technical errors.

Self-represented will not be aware of errors that may result in the case being dropped.

An experienced lawyer examines the case including all court documents to ensure they are proper and comply with all of the requirements in law.

Where there are fatal errors, attorning to the court’s jurisdictions may not be in your best interest, our criminal lawyers can give you good advice about this.

Something as simple as the Certificate of Qualified Breath Technician not being signed, can result in drive over 80mgs charges being dismissed

On the second court date the crown attorney usually provides the police disclosure.

Disclosure represents the evidence that the police have, including technical evidence to be used against the accused.

Many times charges like impaired driving and drive over 80 rely on technical evidence for a conviction.  Where documentary evidence has errors or where evidence is collected improperly, cases have been dismissed.

Our criminal lawyers are able to review disclosure issues and prepare proper arguments and legal motions for your defence.

Something as simple as the Certificate of Qualified Breath Technician not being signed, can result in drive over 80mgs charges being dismissed.

After several court appearances you will be required to conduct a crown pretrial.

This is a meeting between the accused and the crown attorney to discuss the case.

Although it is possible for a self represented person to conduct the pretrial on their own, doing so can result in missed opportunities such as:

• no criminal record
• reductions to traffic tickets
• no licence suspension<

Many times criminal charges can be dropped or reduced to community service hours or diversion.

Not all criminal charges go to trial.

Many times a criminal lawyer can negotiated plea bargain deals for their clients, avoiding criminal records or even licence suspensions.
The crown pretrial stage is extremely important and knowing the crown attorney assigned to the pretrial, can be more important than the legal issues.

Where the crown attorney is too junior to offer a plea bargain for a drinking & driving offence such as impaired driving, over 80mgs, can result in unnecessarily taking your case down the trial process, where the outcome of the case is uncertain.

A plea bargain to Careless Driving for example, guarantees that accused will NOT be saddled with a criminal record, or licence suspension. As a matter of policy the crown attorney’s offices will be instructed to proceed with prosecuting all impaired driving cases

An experienced lawyer will be able to reach out to a senior crown who has the authority to offer a plea bargain deal a DUI case, and therefore can get the charges dropped prior to setting a trial date.

After the crown pretrial stage of the proceedings, the court will want to conduct a judicial pretrial (JPT).

Judicial pretrials are a hearing between:

• the crown attorney,
• judge, and
• sometimes the officer in charge of your case

Judicial pretrials an opportunity to discuss the legal issues, estimated length of time for trial, and possible resolution to the charges without the necessity of taking the matter to trial.

>Where discussions were not successful at the crown pretrial stage, there is another opportunity at the jpt.

At this stage an criminal lawyer will raise legal issues regarding the case that the judge will listen to and may result in the judge that the crown attorney to offer a plea bargain deal that is beneficial to the accused, e.g. no criminal record or traffic ticket offences.

If no resolution can be achieved at the Crown Pre-Trial or the unrepresented accused will be required to set a date for trial.

This process in and of itself is challenging, because:

• with judges schedules,
  • witness & police officers availability to schedule the trial dates.

The accused may need to attend court on several dates to schedule the trial date.

Where dates are set too far into the future a criminal lawyer can protect your rights under section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Want legal advice or like to speak to a lawyer? The first step is to give us a call at 416-731-7113.

There is no fee or obligation to call and speak to us.  The discussion is held with complete privacy and confidence with the lawyer.

The lawyer will be able to give you an opinion about your case, and tell you:

• possible defences to the charge
• legal arguments in your case
• what you can do to help your case
• what the cost to defend the accusation would be

Where you decide to retain our services we will invite you to meet in our Toronto office or have a face to face Zoom online meeting.

In that meeting we’ll discuss the case in detail, plan your defence and arrange for the first court date.

We ask for a reasonable deposit upon retaining our services of 10 to 25 percent.