R. v. L.R.L.

(Calgary P.C. - Criminal Harassment). LRL initially pled "not guilty" to criminal harassment. While the Prosecution had a reasonable prospect of conviction, LRL also had defences to a number of the charges. With respect to the allegation where the Crown had the highest prospect of success, the case was relatively minor and as such, it was the view of LRL's Calgary criminal defence lawyer that there was wisdom in pressing the case to trial. In criminal law, sometimes pleading not guilty and forcing the case(s) to trial is a beneficial option. 

In some cases, the reason an accused might wish to push even a bleak case to trial is to attempt to force a better resolution position. A problem with early case resolution is that the Prosecutor is often not very motivated to resolve the case; however, when the case is scheduled for trial, real world, real work, real administration and real jeopardy issues often arise. Trials present unique challenges to the prosecutor because they not only have to navigate the administration of potentially inconveniencing witnesses, there are limited court resources. These dynamics sometimes create scenarios where the Crown must separate what's important from what is not -- the weak from the chaff.   In LRL's case, the Crown had some weaknesses to some charges and some strength in others.  At the end of the day, the prosecutor agreed to resolve the case by way of a conditional discharge.

A conditional discharge is a sentencing option where the accused is found guilty, but if he or she completes the terms of the probation, the criminal record will not permanently register. A conditional discharge in theory disappears from a criminal record 3 years after the date of pronouncement of the discharge. The benefit to discharge is that the accused will not have a permanent publicly accessible criminal record. It is important to appreciate the border services agencies (such as the United States Border Services) may not recognize a discharge as a non-criminal record, and therefore, though discharge is a positive outcome within Canada, it can still have persisting and lingering effects.

David Chow is a Calgary criminal lawyer, Alberta roadside sanctions lawyer and experienced criminal harassment defence lawyer who will always explore every option to successfully defending a case. This includes closely analyzing the law, the evidence and strategies to bring about a positive conclusion without, where possible,  unnecessarily impacting an accused's bank account.