Criminal & Regulatory Defence
Most people are law-abiding. They live a life where the idea of the criminal law intruding never crosses their minds. Until it does. Then everything can come crashing down. These inflection points sometimes occur at the height of success, when tragedy strikes in a moment of inattention or carelessness, after a deal is struck or a wedding or birth is celebrated. Occasionally, the cause is mistaken identity or a false, even malicious, allegation. Or when a person, unaware or dismissive of the law, exhausts their ninth life.
More frequently, the arrival of the police marks the final shoe to drop in a series of reversals or setbacks: a failing marriage or business, the loss of a job or loved one, the receipt of an unfortunate diagnosis. Such challenges, alone or in combination, enhance one’s exposure to the criminal law. Human beings err most often at the point of their greatest vulnerability.
Even when a person successfully navigates the minefield that is life, the phone can still ring, announcing the ensnaring of their child or other loved one.
Whatever brought you to this place, Hummingbird is here to help.
- Trial and Appeals.
- Independent legal advice for individuals not yet charged or being asked by police to provide a statement.
- General consultation and second opinions.
Areas Of Criminal Practice
Hummingbird assists with all offences under the Criminal Code of Canada, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and the Youth Criminal Justice Act. A particular area of focus is “Impaired Driving and Blood Alcohol Offences”
- Competition Act
- Customs Act
- Income Tax Act
- Occupational Health and Safety Act
- Environmental Protection Act
- Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
- Highway Traffic Act (serious charges only)
How Can Hummingbird Help?
Tough Cases Like Good Lawyers
Oddly, the good news is that the criminal law is extremely complex. This is especially true of drinking and driving cases. This gives an advantage to skilled lawyers. It increases the chances of success at trial and strengthens a clients’ negotiating position in plea bargaining. Persuading the prosecution to accept a favourable compromise early helps everybody. If trial remains the only option other than pleading guilty, the ability to win difficult cases is critical. Negotiation also never really ends. Lawyers can negotiate with the prosecution right up until the verdict is in. A mid-trial development can force the prosecution’s hand if the lawyer recognizes the opportunity. Not all do.
See “Litigating Impaired Driving Cases” and “Helping Your Lawyer Negotiate” for more detail
Helping Your Lawyer Negotiate
While developing a formidable trial strategy is the best negotiating tool, it works well in tandem with a softer approach. Even though criminal statutes set clear limitations on plea bargaining, and the Crown Policy Manual limits the discretion of individual prosecutors, it remains a human process. Persuading the prosecution to exercise its discretion in your favour directly benefits from actions you can take under the guidance of your lawyer. Humanizing a defendant in a criminal proceeding invites compassion and understanding even where evidence of guilt is significant. Not only can it help in pre-trial negotiations; it also assists at sentencing if ever it comes to that.
See “Reference Letters, Awards, and Accomplishments” and “Dealing with Underlying Issues” for more detail.
Reference Letters, Awards, and Accomplishments
Nobody is as good as their highest action or as bad as their lowest. The prosecution and court start off with your lowest. While you are presumed innocent, everybody knows that you are charged with a crime. It’s good to add weight to the other side of the scale. Letters of reference, a history of kind acts and volunteerism, significant achievements, productive talents in the arts or STEM fields, the support of a loving family, etc. all fill out a more comprehensive and balanced profile of the person before the court. A good lawyer marshals this information to build a compelling brief of your personal value to aide in negotiation.
IMPORTANT: Before approaching anyone for a reference letter, first discuss it with your lawyer. As everybody is a potential witness, even if they are not involved in the offence at all, it is important for your lawyer to ensure information remains confidential. It is best not to disclose any information to 3rd parties without your lawyer’s prior approval. Even things that appear insignificant or unrelated can make or break a case. Also, the quality of reference letters matters much more than quantity. Five unique and honest letters from people who know you well is better than 100 saying the same thing.
- reviewing mortgage documents and default issues
- advising on demand letters and notices of sale
- discussing lender-side enforcement options, including power of sale
- advising borrowers who have received default communications
- supporting power of sale-related real estate transactions
- coordinating with litigation counsel where required
Dealing with Underlying Issues
A drug or drinking related arrest can signal an underlying coping issue that might benefit from assistance. Seeking such assistance can also help in negotiating a favourable outcome of your case. Significant functions of the criminal justice system are rehabilitation and the protection of society. Proactively taking steps to deal with stress, depression, or substance dependency promotes those societal benefits. They also make you feel better. They may also help persuade the prosecution or court that some leniency is justified in your case. Taking such steps under the guidance of a lawyer is not an admission of guilt.
Good lawyers take care to ensure that discussions about such issues with Crown prosecutors or the courts in the pre-trial process are “off the record”. If the case proceeds to trial, the trial judge will not be aware of those discussions. If your lawyer recommends that you testify at trial, rules of evidence limit questions by the prosecution about your character, unless you open the door by falsely painting yourself as a teetotaler, for example.
Other Avenues To Success
Criminal prosecutions can also be defeated despite overwhelming evidence of guilt. Usually this involves seeking Constitutional remedies for significant violations of Charter rights. Cases can be stayed (ended without a verdict) due to unreasonable delay by the prosecution and court, inadequate disclosure, lost evidence, or due to abusive treatment of detainees.
Lead Criminal Counsel
Where a skilled trial lawyer identifies potential or glaring weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, it not only assists in building a credible trial strategy; it also strengthens the defence’s hand in negotiation. This can produce favourable outcomes that may not otherwise arise, without all the stress and cost of a full trial.
David Gomes, Hummingbird’s lead in Criminal Law, has litigated hundreds of impaired driving and related cases, along with many other criminal and non-criminal cases.
Impaired Driving And Blood Alcohol Offences
This section deals with criminal offences involving motor vehicles and the consumption of alcohol or drugs.
The Average Person's Offence
Most people charged with impaired driving or related offences have never been before the criminal courts. Most likely, they never will be again. Often, they thought they were drinking responsibly, counting glasses and hours elapsed, driving carefully home from a business meeting or work event. Many cases arise from random spot checks or traffic stops, where there is no apparent impairment but a smell or an admission of consumption to police leads to a breath demand and then arrest. Only some cases meet the dramatic expectations of common belief.
- Impaired operation
- Operation with excess Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)
- Care or control while impaired or with excess BAC
- Fail or refuse to comply with a demand for breath or blood samples
Related Offences
- Dangerous driving
- Fail to stop at the scene of an accident (Criminal Code)
Speak With Our Team for a Free 15-Minute Consultation
A free 15-minute consultation is available for qualifying matters. Contact us to find out if your matter qualifies.
Penalties And Other Consequences
A criminal record or the loss of a driver’s licence can be disastrous, resulting in loss of employment, affecting travel or the ability to care for dependents, complicating immigration or entry into certain trades or professions. Each potentially triggers a host of second-order effects that can go well beyond the actual penalties. The events of arrest and detention are stressful, even traumatic, for the novice detainee, but the cascade of events following release can be much worse.
Litigating Impaired Driving Cases
Why Impaired and BAC Cases Are Complex
These offences stand at the intersection of multiple disciplines, each a world unto itself. The lawfulness of a traffic stop invites consideration of a library of jurisprudence. So does an arrest, even without the use of roadside “approved screening devices”. When used, biology and the proper use of such technology are injected into the analysis. Upon arrest, duties placed on police to properly inform detainees of their rights and assist in their exercise are scrutinized. The most incriminating evidence in drinking and driving cases is usually seized from the detainee’s body: breath or blood samples, or words. The law on admissibility of such evidence is extensive. Also, the roadside device cannot be used to prove BAC at trial. The police need to promptly seize additional samples at the station for analysis by an “approved instrument”. This time pressure induces mistakes. It creates tension between the exercise of a detainee’s rights and the timely collection of that evidence, potentially violating Charter rights. It can also deprive the prosecution of statutory “shortcuts” to prove its case. That can require the Crown to call an expert toxicologist at trial. The defence can then test the scientific and statistical assumptions underlying the opinions given or call its own expert.
Non-standard Cases
The above are examples of a typical case. Other opportunities arise when it’s not a random spot check case. A person may be found sleeping in a car, requiring consideration of the vast jurisprudence of “care or control”. Or police might stop a vehicle fitting a description given by a civilian, which implicates another line of jurisprudence. It also creates issues of proof that the right vehicle or driver was stopped. Effective cross-examination of civilian witnesses often undercuts the prosecution’s case. Other times, the arrest is at a hospital, where a detainee has been taken after a collision, and police arrive after the fact. Yet the condition of people under treatment after an accident arguably does not reflect their condition at the time of driving, so observations made by police at the hospital are often unreliable bases for arrest or conviction. The same goes for assistance given to police by medical personnel, themselves governed by rules of patient privacy that typically require a search warrant or explicit informed consent by the patient. Without either, medical personnel assisting police could poison the Crown’s case.
It can go on and on like that. Plugging one hole can spring another leak. While governments occasionally attempt to legislate some of these difficulties away, those efforts can themselves invite new problems. Parliament and the Provinces remain bound by the Constitution and can only go so far.
Meet Our Criminal & Regulatory Defence Team
Awards & Recognition