Accused Person: A person charged with a criminal offence.

Accessory: A person that helps someone else commit a crime, either before or after the crime.

Accomplice/Co-Accused: A person who is alleged to be a partner in the crime or who knowingly and voluntarily participates in a criminal activity.

Acquittal: When an accused person is found not guilty at trial.

Adjournment: When the judge or justice of the peace postpones the matter to another date and time. An adjournment is generally requested by defence with consent of the prosecutor to get disclosure, obtain instructions from the client or canvass resolution.

Aggravated Assault: An assault in which the victim is wounded, maimed, disfigured or has their life endangered.

Agreed Statement of Facts: An agreement between Crown and Defence as to some or all of the relevant facts that are provided to the judge during a trial, guilty plea or sentencing. The facts may form the entire case against an accused person, such as the case with a guilty plea, or they may be on a certain area that isn’t in dispute and will help with the efficiency of the trial.

Alibi: A defence claim that the accused was somewhere else at the time the crime was committed.

Allegation: What the complainant claims happened. Generally, the allegations are taken from a complainant’s police statement and/or video evidence.

Appeal: If with the Crown or defence disagrees with a decision of a judge or jury, they can ask a higher court to review it. If the appeal court allows the appeal, it can reverse or change the previous decision or order a new trial.

Arraignment: A proceeding in which a criminal defendant is brought into court, told of their charges and asked to plead guilty or not guilty. This is generally how every Court of Queen’s Bench trial begins.

Arrest: When the police take a person into their custody to charge them with a criminal offence. Depending on the circumstances, the police can give a person an appearance notice, a written notice of the charge that says when the person has to go to court or, the police can arrest the person and take him or her to the police station.

Bail Hearing: A court hearing to determine if an accused person should be held in custody pending the resolution of their criminal matter.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: The standard in a criminal case requiring that the trier of fact be satisfied to a near moral certainty that every element of the offence has been proven by the prosecution.

Breath Test: A test conducted by the police that measures how much alcohol is in an accused person’s blood.

Community Service: A condition that requires an accused person to work without pay for a charity. This often forms part of the conditions of probation or resolution through programs such as Alternative Measures.

Concurrent Sentence: Prison terms for two or more offences to be served at the same time, rather than one after another.

Consecutive Sentence: Prison terms for two or more offences to be served after the other.

Constructive Possession: A situation in which a person does not have physical custody of an object, but is in a position to exercise control over it.

Count: An allegation in an indictment or information charging an accused with a crime. Each allegation is referred to as a count.

CPIC: Stands for Canadian Police Information Center which manages a computerized database accessible to police officers throughout Canada. The database contains information about alleged offences, personal characteristics of suspects, cautionary warnings (e.g. Violent), a list of prior convictions and in some cases fingerprints.

Custody: A synonym for jail.

Defendant: An accused person.

Disclosure: Disclosure is all of the evidence held by police with respect to an accused person. Generally, disclosure contains complainant statements, witness statements, photographs, video, contracts or any other relevant documents. The Crown Prosecutor must provide an accused all disclosure if it could be relevant to the case.

Diversion: This is a method of resolving a case in which the criminal charges will be withdrawn once the accused person completes certain conditions such as community service, charitable donation, letter of apology or counselling.

Elements of a Crime: Specific factors that define a crime which the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Entrapment: The act of inducing a person to commit a crime so that a criminal charge will be brought against him or her.

Exculpatory Evidence: Evidence suggesting that an accused person did not commit the crime as alleged.

Factum: Is used in law to refer to a litigant’s written submissions which is to be a clear and concise argument. The term factum is most often used in the context of an appeal but may also be used to refer to written submission at trial level.

Fraud: A false representation of a matter of fact with the intent to deceive another.

Guilty Plea: This means that the accused admits responsibility for the crime and abandons his or her right to a trial.
Habeas Corpus: Latin phrase meaning “you have the body.” Habeas Corpus generally is a judicial order forcing the production of a prisoner and to justify their continued confinement.

Incarceration: Imprisonment in jail or a penitentiary.

Indictable Offence: Criminal offences are divided into two types, summary and indictable. Indictable offences are the more serious kind and can result in harsher punishment than do summary offences. They also entitle the accused to additional court procedures such as a preliminary inquiry and a jury trial.

Mitigating Circumstances: Certain reasons for reducing a sentence or degree of blameworthiness. Examples are age, early guilty plea, remorse and taking responsibility.

Offense: An act that breaks the law, i.e. it is an offense to steal a vehicle.

Parole: The release of a convicted person from jail to serve the remainder of their sentence in the community.
Peace Bonds: Is a favourable resolution to criminal charges in which an accused agrees to abide by certain conditions for a set period of time. Upon entering into a Peace Bond, the Crown Prosecutor withdraws the criminal charge leaving the accused with no criminal record for the incident.

Plea: Whether the accused person tells the court they are guilty or not guilty.

Preliminary Hearing/Inquiry: The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine if the Crown has enough evidence to justify sending the case to trial. It also gives accused and the defence lawyer a chance to test the case against an accused. The test for committal to stand trial is whether or not there is any evidence upon which a reasonable jury properly instructed could return a verdict of guilty.

Pre-sentence Report: A court-ordered report prepared after an accused is convicted that will assist with the proper determination of sentence. Generally, the report contains detailed background of the convicted person including interviews with various friends, family and co-workers.

Pre-trial Conference: Is an informal, off the record meeting involving the prosecutor, defence counsel and a Judge generally held in a conference room at the courthouse. The participants generally discuss the anticipated duration of the trial and central issues to be dealt with at the trial. Resolution is also discussed in hopes of avoiding an unnecessary trial. Judges will often give non-binding recommendations to Crown and Defence.

Probation: Probation can be imposed on a person who has been found guilty of a criminal offence. It is intended to be a rehabilitative rather than a punitive tool. This is accomplished by requiring the offender to comply with certain obligations such as counseling or restricting the offender’s ability to contact or communicate with the victim of the crime. Probation is supervised by a probation officer who will supervise the offender for the length of the probation term.

Prosecutor: The lawyer who will present the evidence against the accused in court on behalf of the Her Majesty. The prosecutor’s job is not to get a conviction at all costs, but rather lay all the evidence before the Court for proper adjudication.
Recognizance: A person who is not released on an undertaking from the police station will be brought before a judge for a bail hearing. If a person is released after a bail hearing, they will be placed on a recognizance of bail requiring them to comply with conditions imposed on them by the judge.

Retainer Agreement: The contract between accused and their lawyer that lays out costs and structure of the relationship.

Retaining Counsel: This refers to the process of hiring a lawyer to represent you by way of an agreed upon fee and payment schedule.

Sentencing Hearing: At the sentencing hearing, a judge will hear argument from both Crown and Defence as to the proper sentence for an accused who has previously been convicted. Often the conviction and sentencing hearing occur at the same time. Once the judge has heard from both sides, he or she may ask further questions to clarify the law or facts about the case and the accused. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge will render a decision for what the appropriate sentence will be.

Subpoena: A Court order compelling a person to attend Court to give evidence at a trial or preliminary inquiry. If a person, after being properly served with a subpoena, fails to attend Court when directed, the Court may issue a material witness warrant, which authorizes the police to locate and arrest the person and to bring him or her before the Court to give evidence.

Surety: A surety is a person who will supervise a bail order. The surety is responsibility for ensuring that the accused person will attend Court, abide by all of the bail conditions and stay out of further criminal trouble. In almost all cases, the surety will be required to pledge a sum of money to guarantee to the court that they will take their role as a surety seriously. A failure to properly supervise the accused person on bail may result in the monies pledged being forfeited.

Trial: A trial is a court hearing to determine whether or not a person is guilty or not guilty of a criminal offence alleged against them.

Undertakings: An undertaking is a form of release given to an accused person by the police who wish to impose certain restrictions on an accused person’s liberty while awaiting trial but without requiring them to go through the process of a bail hearing. The police are limited in the the types of restrictions they are permitted to impose on a person’s liberty. Some examples of valid conditions can include non-association or non-communication restrictions with the complainant or other witnesses.

Victim Impact Statement: At the time of sentencing, victims and their families can make a written or verbal statement to the judge about how they feel about what happened and what the effects of the crime are. In deciding what sentence the accused will receive, the judge can consider the victim impact statement.

Youth Court: The court that deals with criminal charges against a young person under the age of 18.

About Cory Wilson

Cory has represented individuals from all walks of life including lawyers, police officers, athletes, corporate executives, teachers, and everything in between. Cory believes in access to justice for every person charged with a criminal offence regardless of their economic background.