Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney – Explaining Crown Pre-trials

Andrew Captan is an experienced Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney and explains the significance of Crown pre-trial meetings in this article. For more questions about pre-trials or for a free consultation about your criminal case, visit his website HERE.

A Crown pre-trial meeting is a very important event that takes place in the criminal court process in Canada. Every Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney will conduct one in each case they have.  Also, if you are unrepresented, you will have to conduct one on your own.  In this article, I will provide a simple explanation of what takes place at these pre-trials and what is expected to occur. 

The general focus of a Crown pre-trial meeting is to address the following topics:

• What the Crown resolution position and whether there is any prospect of resolving the case
• Whether disclosure is complete
• Whether the defence wishes to disclose any information about the defendant or their defence in order to facilitate resolution
• If resolution is not possible, a discussion of trial length and issues takes place

In this article, as an experienced Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney, I will go through each of these topics to explain how the process works.  As a rule of thumb, if you can afford to retain a criminal lawyer for a Crown pre-trial meeting, it is highly suggested you do, as there are key legal terminology and issues at play with which you will have no prior experience dealing.

Where does a Crown pre-trial meeting take place?

Most Crown pre-trial meetings take place over the phone if a Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney is involved.  If the accused person is unrepresented, these meeting take place either in person at the courthouse or by Zoom.

Who Is Involved in a Crown pre-trial Meeting

As the name suggests, a Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney will be conducting a Crown pre-trial meeting with a Crown Attorney, who is in charge of all criminal prosecutions in Canada.  Other names you might have heard for a Crown Attorney are “prosecutor”, “district attorney” (which is an American term not applicable in Canada) or “the Crown”.  There are no other parties involved at this stage. 

What is the purpose of a Crown pre-trial meeting prior to trial

The general purpose of the Crown pre-trial meeting is to discuss all important aspects of a criminal case outside of court, so that issues between the Crown and Defence can be narrowed down before the case proceeds further.   The Crown pre-trial is typically the first point of contact in a criminal case to discuss substantive (or important) aspects of a case, which are not talked about during the first or second appearances in criminal court.  For this reason, the meeting is critical.    The meeting is, in part, a negotiation, as it involves attempting to get the Crown Attorney to make concessions or offers that are advantageous to an accused person.  An experienced Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney will make sure to  take all necessary steps to better the position of their client at a Crown pre-trial meeting.

Discussing Resolution at a Crown pre-trial meeting

One of the purposes of a Crown pre-trial meeting is to allow the parties to discuss potential plea negotiations and ways in which the criminal case in question can be resolved without a trial.  Resolution discussions can include one of the following strategies:

• Attempting to convince the Crown Attorney to withdraw the charges against the client
• Attempting to convince the Crown Attorney to amend its position as it relates to penalty or sentence, trying to get them to reduce their position to something more lenient
• Attempting to “charge bargain” with a Crown Attorney, which involves attempting to come to an agreement on which charges the accused should plead guilty to (if there is a plea anticipated), and which should be withdrawn (for example, due to lack of evidence)

Once the accused or the Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney receive disclosure from the Crown’s office, typically the Crown will provide in writing a summary of what their position on resolution is.  An experienced Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney will always attempt to “better” that position, ultimately attempting to achieve the outcome that the lawyer and his/her client agreed to seek at the outside of the retainer.

Discussing Disclosure at a Crown pre-trial meeting

Disclosure is the evidence upon which the Crown Attorney will attempt to prosecute the accused.  The accused or his/her Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney are entitled to complete disclosure.  Usually, most, but not always all, disclosure is provided to the accused prior to the Crown pre-trial meeting.  One focus of a Crown pre-trial meeting is to discuss what the outstanding or missing items might be.  To determine this, a Toronto Criminal Lawyer will have to carefully review the initial disclosure, as is it not always clear what that disclosure might be.  Often, outstanding disclosure might include the following:

• Missing video or audio recorded statements
• A 911 call recording
• Missing police memobook notes
• Missing surveillance video

A Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney will convey to the Crown what is missing and the Crown will make note of that in order to make follow up requests with the police.

Discussing Background Information about the Accused

The Crown Attorney, prior to a Crown pre-trial meeting, will invariably know nothing at all about the accused person.  Depending on the Toronto Criminal Defense Lawyer’s strategy in the case, it may make sense for the lawyer to discuss and share details about their client to establish the client’s good character, which in turn may affect the Crown’s position.  Some of these details might include:

• The employment history of the client
• The client’s family situation
• What contributions the client has made to society (e.g. volunteer work)
• Whether the client has mental health issues
• Whether the client has substance abuse issues
• Whether the client has previously completed counselling of any type
• And more!

Discussing Setting a Trial Date

If the Crown Attorney and Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney cannot come to terms on how to resolve the criminal case, a discussion of setting a trial date will occur.  Within this discussion, a number of factors are talked about, including:

• Outstanding disclosure (as discussed above)
• What admissions the Toronto Criminal Lawyer would be willing to make for the trial, such as the date, time, jurisdiction of the incident, or the identity of the client. 
• Whether there are any Charter issues that will be litigated or argued
• Whether there will be any challenges to the admission of any statement or utterances that the client made to police
• Whether there will be any other types of motions or applications either party may consider bringing

Ultimately, an estimate will be determined as to how many days of trial will be required. Depending on the estimate, a further meeting with a Judge (called a Judicial pre-trial) may be required.

Andrew Captan – Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney

If you’ve been charged with a crime, Andrew Captan is an experienced Toronto Criminal Defense Attorney who offers a free and honest initial consultation for criminal cases.  You can call (647) 878-6355, e-mail him at andrew@captanlaw.com or visit HERE.  Andrew has conducted over 1000 Crown pre-trial meetings and may be retained for the purpose of a Crown pre-trial, alone, if the accused person cannot afford retaining him for the entirety of their case.