The Importance of Legal Representation
Why Every Defendant Needs a Skilled Criminal Lawyer
Imagine a scenario where you’ve been apprehended by the police and charged with a mid-level criminal offence. If convicted, you face the prospect of going to prison. You know you’re innocent, but how should you go about defending yourself?
According to a recent survey, 42% of people believed they could achieve a resolution without a lawyer. Whether influenced by online legal guides, ChatGPT, or decades of legal dramas, 50% of civil cases involve one or more parties representing themselves without a lawyer.
It’s a dangerous trend that’s leaving the wrong impression and potentially putting people in a situation where they’re risking a criminal record and incarceration. In any criminal case, you’re always going to face down an opposing legal team. Do you have the legal knowledge to beat a trained criminal prosecutor in court?
Can You Fight a Criminal Prosecution Without a Lawyer?
In 2021, approximately 1.1 million people were charged criminally, excluding traffic offences. Canada’s judicial system allows you to represent yourself without a lawyer.
According to the Canada Department of Justice, one in four defendants represent themselves at a particular stage in the process. However, there are no firm numbers revealing how often these defendants win their cases. Moreover, although you can legally represent yourself, the Court may intervene in certain circumstances.
For example, in R. v. Imona-Russel, the Supreme Court ruled that courts must ensure that defendants have a right to a fair trial if they represent themselves, even if they’ve already refused representation.
Judges may order what’s known as a Rowbotham application if the defendant is vulnerable, has mental health issues, or the case is considered to be too complex for the defendant to represent themselves. Such an application forces the defendant to be represented at the expense of the state.
In all cases, legal experts will strongly discourage self-representation because it’s nearly always against your best interests.
What a Criminal Defence Lawyer Can Do for You
Criminal defence lawyers are there to protect your interests, protect your liberty and shield you from the shear weight of the criminal justice system. This is happens when they argue through the rules of evidence, reduce any potential penalties, and guide you through a complex legal process. With the Federation of Law Societies of Canada reporting more than 136,000 lawyers currently practicing, any one of them can support you in your pursuit of justice.
Here’s how a criminal defence lawyer can dramatically increase your chances of success.
Assessing Your Arrest
The first step is assessing the grounds on which you were arrested. They’ll answer why the police believed you committed the offence you were accused of and the basis for charging you. Under Canadian law, all criminal charges must be rooted in “reasonable and probable grounds.”
Your lawyer may be able to prove that there weren’t reasonable or probable grounds for charging you, which could have your charges dropped or withdrawn at the first stage.
Protecting Your Charter Rights
All Canadians have rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It’s your lawyer’s job to ensure these rights aren’t violated throughout your criminal case. These include Section 11(c), or your right to remain silent.
Your lawyer will uncover any violations of your Charter Rights, which could weaken or collapse the case against you.
For example, in a recent case involving gun and drug charges, the charges were dropped after an Ontario Superior Court found that the arresting officers had violated the man’s Charter Rights due to racial profiling. Regardless of the man’s guilt relating to the charges, violating his rights meant the officers couldn’t use the evidence they’d acquired, meaning the man was acquitted of all charges.
Providing Objective Legal Advice
Criminal defence lawyers bring unrivaled experience and expertise to your case. It enables them to provide objective advice as they guide you through the process. Crucially, they ensure you don’t make amateur missteps that could inadvertently tip the scales against you during your case.
For example, in the Humboldt Broncos Crash, Jaskirat Sidhu dismissed his legal counsel and represented himself. Although he pleaded guilty, he also received the longest sentence in Canadian history for dangerous driving. Legal experts claim his eight-year sentence would have been significantly less with legal representation.
His missteps included:
- Not introducing expert testimony.
- Not arguing for a lesser sentence using legal precedent and exhibits.
- Not challenging the Crown’s sentencing submission.
Even though it may not have impacted the final outcome, a lawyer could well have argued for a lesser sentence.
Recognize, Secure, and Deploy Evidence
It’s a misconception that lawyers only perform the legwork of gathering evidence. Although you could gather the evidence yourself, the value of a lawyer is how they use that evidence to support your innocence and disprove the prosecution’s arguments.
Once secured, your lawyer uses evidence to prove innocence in ways the layperson would have never even considered. In short, they leave no stone unturned and don’t miss things that someone without experience would.
Navigating the Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system is built on procedure, and learning about those procedures yourself will take away valuable time that you could be using to focus on your defence. Furthermore, you’re unlikely to extract the same value as a qualified lawyer would.
Self-represented defendants will always be at a disadvantage in these scenarios. Plus, your lack of experience will limit your participation during several procedures, including the Crown pre-trial and Judicial pre-trial meetings.
Lawyers can use these meetings to raise vital issues and present evidence that could result in a pre-trial resolution, meaning your case will never actually reach the courtroom.
Building an Effective Defence
Your innocence may be a sure thing to you personally, but that’s not what the prosecution thinks. In Canada, the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are guilty of said charges. The two factors they’ll need to prove to this standard are:
- You committed the act you’ve been accused of.
- You committed the act with knowledge and/or intent.
The most common misconception self-represented defendants have is that the best line of attack is to prove their innocence. In contrast, lawyers know the best way to deal with criminal charges is to address those two factors.
As such, they’ll build a defence focusing on raising doubts about the Crown’s narrative. In short, the goal is to disprove guilt rather than prove innocence.
Represent Your Best Interests at Every Point
Defence lawyers support you throughout every stage of the process, including explaining the charges, penalties, best-case outcomes, and worst-case outcomes, using their knowledge of the law.
Your immediate reaction may be to go to court and prove your innocence. However, this isn’t always the only way forward. Your lawyer might advise you to make a decision that gives you the best result.
For example, if they believe the Crown has a watertight case, they may suggest a pre-trial outcome that doesn’t prove your innocence but keeps you out of jail. The duty of a lawyer isn’t to argue your innocence but to secure your acquittal. These two aren’t always the same thing.
Protect Your Future from a Life-Changing Conviction
Ask yourself whether you want to give yourself the best possible chance of success and what the consequences will be if things don’t go as planned.
Incarceration is only the tip of the iceberg. Examples of what a permanent criminal record could mean for you for the rest of your life include:
- Inability to secure future employment.
- Permanent exclusions from certain professions.
- Risk of deportation if you’re not a Canadian citizen.
- Restrictions on visiting other countries, including the U.S. and the European Union (EU).
- Damage to child custody/visitation rights.
- Inability to adopt.
It’s also worth mentioning that harsher sentencing is a given if you’re charged and convicted criminally in the future because of your record. Hiring a lawyer to fight your case exponentially increases your chances of defeating the charges.
Conclusion: Seek Legal Counsel to Prove Your Innocence
The greatest advantage of hiring a lawyer is increasing your chances of avoiding pre-trial detention and future conviction. Remember, the Crown has at its disposal some of the most talented and experienced lawyers in the country.
With what’s lined up against you, the reality is that you’re unlikely to win because you don’t have the same knowledge or experience. It’s the equivalent of a layperson trying to win an academic debate against a professor in their specialist subject.
At Wyman & Williamson, we’re one of the premier Calgary law firms. Our lawyers go the extra mile to prove your innocence and demolish the Crown’s arguments. Start the first step to fighting your case by contacting us for your free case consultation today.