Category: Criminal

By: Ruth Roberts If you have the misfortune to be arrested, you are protected under a constellation of sections of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Sections 7 – 11 deal with many of those legal rights. Perhaps the most important ones when you are first arrested are sections 9, 10 and 11: the right not be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned (s.9); the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay.(s.10); and the right to be informed without reasonable delay

Author: Scott Raycroft-Wright If you have spent any time around the criminal justice system in Canada, you may have heard the words “summary” and “indictable” used in relation to criminal offences. These terms refer to the classification of the offence, which can affect things like the limitations period, available sentences, and eligibility for record suspensions. When facing a criminal charge it is important to know the difference between the categories so you can know what to expect. Summary offences Summary

Author: Ruth Roberts My favorite fictional character, and professional role model, Rumpole of the Bailey, was notorious for quoting at length from Shakespeare, and the classics. It is often a guilty pleasure of mine. How better to express all the grandeur and tragedy and nuance of humanity, than through the golden eloquence of some of the greatest writers of all time? They were able to distill overwhelming events into understandable and manageable paragraphs; they were able to poignantly sum up

As of January 1, 2022, the fee to apply for a criminal record suspension has been reduced from $657.77 to $50. If you or someone you know has wanted to apply for a record suspension but has been putting it off because of the cost, now would be a great time to apply! If you or someone you know has a criminal record but is not familiar with the record suspension process, read on for a quick summary. Canada no

On a sunny, cold and sparkling February day, twenty-three years ago, I stepped onto the stage at Roy Thompson Hall – and into my future as a criminal defence lawyer. It was a future that ten years before I could not have imagined, but life has a way of taking us to the places we need to be. How I came to law as a mature student is a story for another time. But I was incredibly fortunate to be

Practicing medical malpractice law in Canada is fraught with risk. Interestingly, medical doctors in Canada, for the most part, are not insured in the traditional sense. Rather, they are part of the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) that acts similar to an insurer. That is, if a medical doctor is sued, the CMPA will invariably defend the medical doctor and in rare cases pay a settlement to the injured plaintiffs. If the plaintiff succeeds at trial, the CMPA pays the