Section 587 of the Code gives the trial Court authority to order the Crown to furnish particulars where it is satisfied that particulars are necessary for an accused to receive a fair trial. Where a particular is delivered pursuant to section 587, a copy of the particular is given without charge to the accused or her counsel and it is entered in the record and the trial proceeds in all respects as if the information or indictment has been amended to conform with the particular. While the matters described in subsection 587(1)(a) to (g) may be the subject of an order for particulars, these are not exhaustive of what might be ordered. Thus, the true function of particulars is to give further information to the accused of that which the prosecution intends to prove so that she may have a fair trial.
Discovering the Case: Be Thorough, Be Relentless
Uncovering all the facts requires more than meetings with your own client and the client’s witnesses. Complete disclosure is paramount, although the issue of what can or should be disclosed in any given case is by no means uncontroversial.
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Meeting the Client’s Witnesses: Be Patient, Be Supportive
So far as practicable, you should try to provide the same sort of empathy and support to the witnesses who may be called in support of your client. They too feel vulnerable when they deal with lawyers. Who doesn’t? But witnesses feel more than usually threatened. Except for the fear of punishment that the accused alone may face, witnesses consider that they are very nearly in the same position as the accused. They are unfamiliar with and usually frightened of the trial process, so they are reluctant to be involved. They need to be made to feel that the lawyer has taken into account their interest as well as those of the accused. They must come to see that the lawyer representing the accused is competent to handle the trial and to present them before the court without causing them humiliation or terror. Continue reading “Meeting the Client’s Witnesses: Be Patient, Be Supportive”
Meeting the Client: Be Interested, Stay Interested
A common complaint against criminal trial lawyers is that, at bottom, they tend to show little empathy for their clients. We are said to show more concern for ourselves, and our fee, than for the person who, after all, stand accused of a crime and face the daunting power and authority of the police and prosecution. It may be true: the longer the lawyer toils away at this business, the greater the possibility that the lawyer will be insensitive to the particular plight of the individual charged. Continue reading “Meeting the Client: Be Interested, Stay Interested”
In The Beginning There Was Light
The work of a trial lawyer is uniquely difficult. Every line of work has its difficulties, each requires developing certain skills. Most businesses require persuading others about the merit of a product or a service. But trial lawyers have a much higher bar to reach, as Judges are no ordinary people. They are highly educated, experienced and perceptive. And for jury trials, your arguments will need to be understood and accepted by twelve (or fourteen) people at once. You will need to prepare for this task like you have never prepared before.
The Importance of Strategy in a Criminal Trial
Covid jab mandates are unethical, unconstitutional, and highly dangerous
Editor’s Note: Patrick Ducharme’s first ever Youtube video went viral and stirred up a firestorm of debate across Canada. The story was published in newspapers nationwide. Hundreds of people wrote comments below the article on the newspapers’ Web sites. The comments were overwhelmingly positive in supporting our view, that the official rhetoric is dangerous and unlawful. Oddly, the Windsor Star has cherry-picked two letters, both extremely ignorant and negative, to publish in its printed editorial section. We sent the following letter to the editor of the Windsor Star:
Evidence shows jabs are more dangerous than Covid.
Forcing anyone to take the jab is unethical, unconstitutional, and highly dangerous. The side effects of taking the jab are often significantly worse than what the jab seeks to ameliorate.
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The Art of the In-Trial Objection
Objections Generally
No great art is achieved without sacrifice. The best actors, writers and painters labour over their materials, honing and refining them day after day, until they seem “natural” or “spontaneous”. The work of the artist is the work of the trial lawyer. Good advocacy is acquired when the lawyer has the persistence, the patience and the humility to practice and re-practice until the skill she exhibits at trial seems as if it were naturally imparted.
The Art and Plan of Cross-Examination
Cross-examination is a treacherous process, loaded with danger, as so many others have already eloquently stated.2 Indeed, we hear, read and see so much about what decisive effect cross-examination can have in a borderline case that perhaps we create, quite unintentionally, a most undesirable effect: the paralyzing fear of failure. I hope you will humour me a while today; I want to try to alleviate the fear.
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