Virtual Zoom criminal remote court dates and receiving Crown disclosure in Ontario, Canada.

Should an accused person with a remote Zoom court appearance date apply for their case disclosure from the Crown Attorney’s themselves or have a lawyer do it for them?

If possible, it is best to have your lawyer request and obtain the disclosure directly from the Crown themselves from the start. Those who have received an Undertaking (Form 10) or Appearance Notice (Form 9) should hire a lawyer prior to their first Zoom court appearance date and prior to receiving the disclosure from the Crown.

If you have been criminally charged in Ontario you may have received a paper from the police that tells you how to contact the Crown Attorney’s office in your jurisdiction to request the disclosure (evidence) in your case. This paperwork will normally be provided in addition to an Appearance Notice (Form 9) or Undertaking (Form 10) with a virtual (remote) Zoom court appearance date and a fingerprint date. Ideally, your lawyer will request the disclosure from the Crown on your behalf before the first court appearance date.

While an accused can request the disclosure themselves, this is part of the process that their lawyer will do for them in most cases. Once retained, a criminal lawyer will notify the Crown Attorney’s office that they are representing the accused and the disclosure will be provided directly to the lawyer. The lawyer will normally also attend all Zoom virtual court appearance dates without the presence of the accused (unless they direct the accused to log in and be present for it).

I applied for the disclosure myself and have not received it yet. What is taking the Crown so long and how can I complain about this?

The disclosure is not always available prior to the first court appearance date. Sometimes it will take many months to receive the disclosure. This was the case in Ontario long before the virtual Zoom remote court system was implemented. The criminal justice system does not operate like a fast food restaurant with a “the customer is always right” mentality. It is slow moving and not geared towards “customer service”. The process of receiving and reviewing the disclosure is ideally done by their criminal defence lawyer, not the accused themselves.

An accused must not forget that the Crown is the decision maker on the file and contains sole discretion whether to ultimately drop the charges or not. Standing out or making a scene regarding the quickness of the availability of the disclosure may work against your best interests particularly in the early stages of your case. A good criminal lawyer knows how to navigate the criminal justice system and handle/present your case in a way that elicits the lowest possible Crown position (hopefully to drop the charges).

An accused who is acting on their own behalf without a lawyer may inadvertently annoy the decision maker on their case which could impact their subjective decision making on your file. It is always better to have a lawyer request the disclosure and deal with the Crown for you (as opposed to representing yourself).

I thought I had a right to receive the disclosure from the Crown and to a speedy trial.

You do have this right, but what the courts consider to be “too long” a delay to get the disclosure is a much longer time than what most self-represented accused assume. They often think that if the disclosure is not available by the first court appearance date the Crown is way too late in providing it. In reality, the system does not work this way.

A Crown delay in providing the disclosure may eventually give rise to a Charter s. 11 (b) argument but this would normally only be if the Crown delayed providing the disclosure for many months after the first court appearance date. It is the job of your lawyer to handle the disclosure process in a way that is most beneficial to you. Hiring a lawyer upon being charged (given a Zoom court date) puts them in the best possible position to navigate the disclosure process in a way that is most beneficial to you.

Time sensitivity and no-contact/communication conditions in domestic cases.

Sometimes the accused may also want to start the process of having their no-contact/communication release conditions on their Undertaking or Release Order changed as soon as possible. This is particularly true in domestic cases where the accused is often displaced from their home and unable to contact their spouse due to their terms of release. Part of the lawyer's job in such alleged domestic violence cases is to try to get their terms of release varied to allow for contact with their spouse/partner as soon as possible.

Depending on a type of case (domestic, DUI, theft, etc.) there may also be time-limited options (resolution deals) that could permanently be lost due to delays on the side of the accused.

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