Criminal Defence Law Blog
The Law Society of Ontario is now better prepared to step up in engaging with Legal Aid Ontario, after years of distance between the two organizations, says outgoing treasurer Paul Schabas. Schabas — who on June 28 leaves the role of treasurer of the regulatory body — says that a deeper relationship with Legal Aid Ontario is one of the most enduring things he accomplished in the role.
Source: LSO has responsibility to legal aid: Schabas | Law Times
This week, a court in Newfoundland and Labrador recognized three unmarried adults as the legal parents of a child born within their “polyamorous” family. It was believed to be a legal first in Canada. However, many Canadians were left with one big question: What does polyamorous mean? Here’s five things you need to know: 1. […]
Source: Five things you need to know about polyamory – CityNews Toronto
The arrest of dozens of Nigerian email scammers and their associates is a small, but important, first step toward tackling an enormous problem.
Source: Feds Bust Dozens of Email Scammers, but Your Inbox Still Isn’t Safe
The organized crime groups that perpetrate the financial cyber fraud called business e-mail compromise have victimized companies and organizations around the world.
Source: Business E-Mail Compromise
For young lawyers, mentorship is in short supply, cases are more complex and the bench has “softened” as the new generation of judges includes fewer “tyrants” like those with whom they dealt as young lawyers, according to Dennis O’Connor and Thomas Cromwell.
Source: Veteran judges say young lawyers lack mentoring, courtroom experience | Canadian Lawyer Mag
I am enjoying the writing style of The Secret Barrister and the accuracy of his/her observations and explanations of the authentic daily work of criminal justice in the book “Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken. In the chapter about bail and bail review and the client Rio and the charges of multiple rapes of his partner, Lori:
“The absence of the defendant from his own hearing has a strange effect. On the one hand, it makes your job a little easier when defending. Unlike in the magistrates’ court where you may be trying to persuade an unimpressed bench of your client’s bailability, punctuated by helpful yelps from the dock (‘Tell ‘em I’ll go on tag. I’ll do fucking anything!’), no such distractions prevail here. The judge is forced to imagine how unappealing your client is, rather than have the proof of the pudding shouting racial epithets from the back of the court. But it also means that the defendant is shielded from the reality of the cursory treatment that his bail application may receive.
As for the recent allegations, they were all lies, I had learned from Rio’s written instructions in Alan’s brief. He never forced Lori into sex. He wouldn’t. He didn’t need to; he got all the action he wanted from all manner of local lovers (Upon meeting Rio, his missing teeth and impressive, two-seat encompassing girth cast this strand of his instructions into dubious relief, but I suppose the heart wants what it wants.) In fact, it was one of these lovers, and specifically, her presence in Rio’s bed when Lori returned home early, that lay behind the outpouring of false allegations from the conniving, scorned complainant, well aware that Rio’s disreputable history would bolster the credibility of her false allegations.
Detention in remand effectively starts the moment you are arrested, when the police turn up unexpectedly one idle Tuesday afternoon while you’re midway through hanging up the washing, or as you arrive home from a double shift. From that moment, your freedom is the property of the state. You can be detained at the police station overnight, taken to court from the police cells and then formally remanded until trial. It could be months, if not years before you are returned to normality. And every day that passes is another day that your life is continuing without you in it. Your partner going about their business. Your job still needing to be done. Your children hitting their developmental milestones. Rent accumulating and bills piling up, and the consequences of their neglect – dismissal, eviction, repossession, disconnection – awaiting you upon your release, or, more painfully, exacted upon your loved ones as you watch their suffering helplessly through the prison bars.”
The defence argues lawyer Leora Shemesh was tricked and trapped by the Crown, her lawyers argue.
Source: Prominent Toronto lawyer set to go on trial on perjury charge | The Star
Angelina Codina has been sentenced to jail for 7 years for giving immigration advice without a license and counselling an applicant to lie — conducts described as ‘evil’ by an Ontario court.
Source: Ungovernable unlicensed immigration adviser gets 7-year jail term | The Star
Jurors in three recent cases were discovered conducting their own online research, despite strict instructions from judges to consider only the evidence raised in court.
Source: How Google-happy jurors are derailing Ontario trials | The Star