Ines Gavran
Toronto Bail Hearing Criminal Lawyer
Toronto criminal defence lawyer Ines Gavran has ample experience in conducting bail hearings
Your right to be free from arbitrary detention or arrest.
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Reasonable Time
Your right to be tried within a reasonable time.
Consult with Criminal Defence Lawyer in Toronto
Ines Gavran Bail Hearing Criminal Lawyer – Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, North York, GTA
When charged with a criminal offence, it is often the outcome of the bail hearing that sets the tone for the rest of your case. Considering your liberty and security will be at stake if you are detained, it is of uttermost importance that you have the assistance of an experienced criminal defence lawyer who can prepare and advocate for your liberty even prior your arrest – as early as when you suspect that you are under police investigation. At Gavran Criminal Defence, Toronto criminal defence lawyer Ines Gavran has ample experience in conducting bail hearings and routinely persuasively advocates for the least onerous form of release in the circumstances.
Criminal Lawyer
Bail Hearing
What is a Bail Hearing?
When you are arrested and charged with a criminal offence, the police can either release you on a promise to appear or hold you at the station immediately after your arrest. If the police decide to hold you, then usually within 24 hours of your arrest, you will be brought before a Judge or a Justice of the Peace to have your bail hearing. Bail hearing is a legal proceeding where, in most of the cases, but not all, the Crown must establish why you should be detained in custody pending your trial. In Canada, once you are arrested and charged with a criminal offence, you are presumed innocent until found guilty at trial or plead guilty to an offence. As a result, there is a strong presumption in the law that you are not to be detained or imprisoned prior to trial, subject only to limited exceptions. Despite this, there has been a troubling tendency within our criminal justice system, especially in Ontario, to order detention of individuals while they await their trial, or to only allow release with sureties and with very strict conditions, such as house arrest. This tendency that the Supreme Court recently strongly criticized in the case of R v Antic, the leading bail hearing case in Canada.
At Gavran Criminal Defence, our philosophy is that dedication, attention to detail, well prepared strategy and effective advocacy is what secures the best results.
If you are charged with a criminal offence and require a bail hearing, call Gavran Criminal Defence immediately at (647) 624-6324 to schedule your initial consultation.
How Bail Hearings Are Conducted
Regardless of what you are charged with and of whether the onus is on you or the prosecution, the Court will have to consider three grounds for detention when determining whether you should be detained pending your trial:
1) Detention is necessary to ensure attendance in court
2) Detention is necessary to prevent from another offence being committed
3) Detention is necessary to maintain confidence in the administration of justice, having regard, in particular, to the seriousness of the charge and the strength of the case
Generally, it is the Crown who must satisfy the onus to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you should be detained on one or more of these grounds. If the Crown cannot prove that your detention is necessary, the Court will release you on a form of release that is necessary to ensure all three grounds are addressed. However, in some circumstances, such as if you are charged with a more serious offence, particularly if you are charged with murder, it will be incumbent on you or your criminal defence lawyer to persuade the Court that you should be released – this is a called a “reverse onus” bail hearing, where the onus falls on you to prove that your detention is not necessary on a balance of probabilities. If you are charged with murder, you will not get a bail hearing unless you or your criminal defence lawyer make a formal application to the Superior Court of Justice. As to the bail conditions of release, if you’re employed, it is important to ensure that any curfew or restraining order interferes as little as possible with your work. If you struggle with substance abuse, a condition that prevents you from consuming that substance altogether may just be setting you up for failure. For these reasons, before you agree to any conditions of bail, it is crucial to retain a criminal defence lawyer who can advocate on your behalf to ensure that your bail conditions are fair and in your best interest.