Canadian Lawyer - sample

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A Y 2 0 1 7 29 multiple charges related to the same weapon, many of which are likely to be withdrawn at trial, he explains. "The use of both is leverage," says Jugnauth. He suggests it also creates unnecessary delay as cases wind through the system. Despite the concerns raised following the Supreme Court decision in Jordan, the 18-month ceiling for a provincial court trial is longer than in the previous framework, and with prejudice playing a much less important role, it could reduce the chance of a successful Charter appli- cation for these cases. Ontario Court of Justice data indicates that at the end of 2016, more than 93 per cent of cases in the system were below the 18-month ceiling. Toronto defence lawyer Greg Lafon- taine says that the Supreme Court's expressed concern over unreasonable delay has not changed in the past quarter century, but the chances of a successful Charter motion on this issue has been reduced. "The rhetoric is the same, but the forgiveness zone [for the Crown] seems to be increasing," he says. "When I started, if I had a client in custody and said I want a trial, I could get one in four to six weeks. Now you have to jump through a thousand hoops to get a trial date. You have to fill out forms, have a Crown pretrial and a judi- cial pretrial to get a half- to one-day trial," says Lafontaine. "It is a shell game to try to direct delay on the defence." Defence lawyers and even numerous judges in Southern Ontario have also long complained about delays in getting standard disclosure in a timely fashion from police in criminal cases that are not complex. A common frustration is that the format of the disclosure does not work on computers manufactured by Apple. "Why can't I get disclosure in an MP-4 file?" asks Lafontaine. In one Toronto- area jurisdiction, he recounts, there are no microphones in the booking area of police stations, but audio can be faintly heard from a nearby breathalyzer room microphone for clients charged with impaired driving. "I have to turn it up to 11 to try to hear if they said, 'I want my lawyer,'" says Lafontaine. The president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association agrees that dis- closure from police can be a problem even for prosecutors. "There are some- times technological issues that need to be looked at," says Kate Matthews in reference to a new system where dis- closure is supposed to be transmitted electronically from police to the Crown. Matthews has sympathy with anoth- er common complaint of defence law- yers in Ontario that it is difficult to get an individual Crown to look at a file in a timely fashion and exercise discretion on what to do with the case. "You need to spend time with cases at an early By The nuMBers Number of reported cases where charges were stayed by a judge in Alberta for a Charter breach of unreasonable delay since R. v. Jordan was released (as of March 1/17) Median number of court appearances to complete a criminal case in Canada in 2014-15 2 5 9 4.5 32 43 1.3 73,379 215,268 324 Percentage of criminal cases in Canada that took more than 18 months to complete in 2014-15 Percentage of cases disposed of following a trial in the Ontario Court of Justice in 2016 Percentage of criminal cases stayed or withdrawn by the Crown in 2014-15 Percentage of total cases stayed by the Crown in Ontario either before or at trial in the Ontario Court of Justice in 2016 Percentage of concluded criminal cases in B.C. courts in 2015-16 that ended with a not guilty finding New civil proceedings in Ontario Superior Court in 2014 Number of criminal cases received by the Ontario Court of Justice in 2014 Median length of days to complete a sexual assault case in courts in Canada in 2014-15 Percentage of criminal cases in the Ontario Court of Justice in 2016 that were disposed of through committal for trial in Superior Court after a preliminary hearing Percentage of criminal cases in Canada that ended with a guilty plea or finding of guilt in 2014-15 Percentage of total cases stayed by the Crown in B.C. courts in 2015-16 Percentage reduction in criminal impaired driving cases in B.C. provincial court in five years since immediate roadside prohibition introduced New criminal cases in the Ontario Superior Court in 2014 Percentage of cases disposed of in the Ontario Court of Justice through a guilty plea before or at trial in 2016 1.2 63 27 85 3,749 44 Sources: Statistics Canada, CanLII, Ontario Court of Justice, B.C. Criminal Justice Branch Annual Report

• Cover