Criminal Law Meeting Place in Ottawa

Criminal charges are complicated, and fighting them in the Crown’s office, in pre-trials, and trials, is even more complicated. Our team is experienced at handling these things for a variety of clients with a variety of charges. First, we meet with you for a free 30-minute consultation where you can explain to us what happened. We use that information to give you a cost and a rough estimate of the kinds of outcomes you might expect. Next, if you retain us we contact the Crown Attorney (the government lawyer whose job is to convict you) and request disclosure. Disclosure is a file with all of the evidence the Crown has against you; they are obligated to let us see what they have to work with. We review that to determine how strong the Crown’s case is, then discuss it with you to see what options you might be interested in proceeding with. This could mean trying to have the Crown drop the charges, attempting to secure a deal where you plead guilty to a lesser offence to have the original charges dropped, taking the case to trial, etc. For the most part, we can handle things without you being present and if we need you to be there we can let you know in advance. From there we update you along the way and try to resolve the charges in the way you specified.

Once you retain us, not usually. Your criminal defence lawyer acts as an “agent” on your behalf, which means you typically don’t need to be at meetings with the Crown or most sessions in Court. If you need to be present, for example, to sign a peace bond or for sentencing, we’ll let you know in advance. Since we can go in for you most of the time you don’t need to worry about court dates interfering with your work or personal life.

It depends. The cost of a defence varies based on the charges, the evidence the Crown has, how much time our lawyers, paralegals, clerks and law students will need to work on the case, etc. That said, we don’t use the “billable hours” model that many firms still use, where the cost increases as time goes on and you don’t know the final bill until the case is finished. We give you a block rate at the very beginning so you know how much it will cost before you agree to retain us.

Ask us for an interest-free payment plan. We recognize that legal fees can be intimidating when viewed as a lump sum cost, so we offer a chance for our clients to make small payments over a longer period with no additional interest. It’s easier to make a small payment each time you get a paycheck than it is to get the entire cost together at once. We’ll work with you to build a custom plan that best suits your financial situation.

There are plenty of restaurants in the area. If you stay on Elgin St you’ll find several pubs, a diner, a vegetarian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant and a sports bar.

Never assume your case is unwinnable, always discuss it with a criminal lawyer first. There are plenty of things we tend to notice in cases since we’ve been handling criminal defence for decades. For example, a case of driving with a blood-alcohol level over 80mg/100ml might seem unwinnable if the police have several tests that show you did have an alcohol level above the legal limit. However, if the police failed to tell you about your right to counsel within a reasonable time the evidence from their tests might be deemed inadmissible for violating your Charter rights. This could weaken the Crown’s case enough to have the charged withdrawn by the Crown or dismissed by a judge. These are the sorts of things we look for in the notes provided to us by the Crown in their disclosure. Talk to us before you make any assumptions about your likelihood of success.

You can contact any of the following places to have an Interlock Ignition device installed on your vehicle:

LifeSafer Ignition Interlock
2615 Lancaster Road, Unit 20
Ottawa, ON
K1B 5N2
Telephone: 1-888-769-6080

Ignition Interlock Ottawa
25 Laurier Ave West, Suite 900
Ottawa, ON
K1P 5J6
Telephone: 613-748-5254