The Criminal Trial in Canada

criminal trial canadaIt is impossible to provide a brief overview of what takes place at a criminal trial in Canada.  Suffice to say that it is intensely complicated process that requires years, if not decades of highly technical and specialized expertise to fully master.  Law schools offer full courses in advocacy that despite their intensity and length, only touch upon the most basic of trial process.

The criminal trial ingests, synthesizes, and implements a lawyer’s knowledge of evidence, human behaviour, skills in examination, public speaking, tactical decision making, and overall intelligence.  In short, it epitomizes and crystallizes the definition of what it means to be a “lawyer” to many counsel – at least those who are litigators.   Trials are stressful, intense, unpredictable, and carry a very high degree of risk to those inexperienced in the process.

Why retain a lawyer for the criminal trial

Needless to say, it is essential for a person who is facing criminal charges to retain counsel to assist with the trial process.  As an example of how important this is, history demonstrate that even those familiar with the criminal process retain counsel including police officers, lawyers, and judges when charged with criminal acts.

Although the Canadian criminal trial process is the envy of most nations around the world, it is premised upon an adversarial system where a highly skilled Crown Attorney will seek to use everything within their prosecutorial means and ethics to return a verdict of guilt unless there is no public interest to do so, or if there is no reasonable prospect of conviction – indeed, they are obligated to do so.

As a result, in order for the scales of justice to remain balanced, a person ought to retain an equal adversary in order to defend them against the Crown and the virtually endless resources they possess.  You may speak to one of our criminal defence lawyers today about this and other processes in order to ensure that you are provided the best defence possible.