Ensuring the Accused’s
Appearance in Court
CLN4U
Ensuring the Accused’s Appearance
in Court
• An individual accused of a criminal offence
is likely to attend court on the day of
his/her trial due to a legally enforceable
promise to do so.
• Process varies with nature and seriousness
of the offence
“Rule of thumb”
• But generally everyone is released
unless there are reasonable grounds
for keeping them detained in
custody, i.e.:
• Establish their identity
• Secure or preserve evidence
• Prevent further offences
• To ensure the accused’s appearance in
court
Summary/Less Serious
Indictable Offences
• For summary conviction and less serious
indictable offences there are four such
measures:
1. Appearance Notice
2. Summons
3. Promise to Appear
4. Recognizance
Appearance Notice
• Legal document issued by a police officer when no
arrest has been made (s. 496 of the Criminal Code)
• Summary, hybrid and less serious indictable offences
• Names the offense the accused has been charged
with
• Time and place of court appearance
• Accused must sign the document and receive a copy
• Officer will swear before a judge or justice of the
peace that he/she believes on reasonable grounds
that the person named in the appearance notice
committed the offence
Summons
• Document issued by a justice or judge after an
arrest has been made (S. 493 of the Criminal Code)
• A summons is usually delivered personally by a
police officer.
• It sets out what the charge is, and when the
person must appear in court to answer the charge.
• the person may also be told to go to the police
station for finger-printing for an indictable offence.
• Failure to show up for finger-printing can lead to a
warrant for arrest being issued.
Promise to Appear
• Issued by a police officer in charge of a police
station
• Agreement to appear in court at a stated date
and time
• If you do not attend you will be charged with
failure to appear, for which the crown quite
often seeks a jail sentence.
Recognizance
• Similar to a Promise to appear
• The accused promises to pay a sum of money if
he or she fails to appear
• The maximum amount of a recognizance entered
into before an officer in charge is $500
MORE SERIOUS INDICTABLE OFFENCES
Bail Hearing
• Police must bring accused before a
justice for a bail hearing within 24
hours of arrest.
• A bail hearing is a procedure where a
judge or a justice of the peace
determines whether a person charged
with an offence should be released or
held in custody pending trial.
Reasons to Deny Bail
• to ensure that the accused attends
court;
• to protect the public;
• to maintain confidence in the
administration of justice;
• the court will consider the apparent strength of
the prosecution's case, the gravity of the
offence, the circumstances surrounding crime
and the potential for a lengthy jail term
Right to reasonable bail
• The Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms gives everyone the right not to
be denied reasonable bail without just
cause.
• Accordingly, bail must be set at an amount
within the reach of the accused or that of
their sureties.
Surety
• responsible to ensure that the accused
attends court as required.
• responsible to ensure that the accused
abides by the conditions of his release
• must provide some measure of
supervision over the accused's daily
activities.
• If the accused breaches his bail conditions,
the surety is responsible to forfeit the bail
they posted on behalf of the accused.
Undertaking with conditions
• When granted
Bail, a person
will be released
on entering an
undertaking
with one or
more of the
following terms:
• remain within a certain area
(city, country or province)
• surrender passport
• notify police of any change in
address or employment
• abstain from communicating with
any person
• abstain from possessing a firearm
and surrender any firearm
• report to police at specified
times
• abstain from consuming alcohol
or other intoxicating substances