I recieved a summons to appear in court today from a police…

Hello, thank you for the questions. Do you have a criminal record?

I know that the process is intimidating, but I'll walk you through it.

OK. Is this a summons to court or a summons to a police / reporting station for photographing and fingerprinting?

So it says to respond between Jan 21 and Feb 04? Is there a number to call, or an address to go to?

Is it a police station or a courthouse?

Check the address on the interwebs, I'll be waiting here. This is important.

OK, that's good. This is being treated as a Highway Traffic offense rather than Criminal Code, which means you're not going to jail or anything.

Right. You haven't been convicted yet.

And you may well not be.

Now, you can go see a lawyer if you wish. Then you'll worry less and you'll have a professional who knows the process well to handle it for you. If you can afford it, I recommend it.

That depends on how "in demand" the lawyer is, how busy they are, and their reputation. But you don't need to get one yet.

Any chance you can get down to that office during business hours sometime soon?

OK, it's good to go in advance. Then on your next date you know exactly where you're going. If court is going on, you can watch and learn a few things. You'll see people representing themselves and screwing it up. You'll see lawyers in action, and if you see one you like you can approach them and ask them about their rates. You'll see short trials where people who are accused of offenses similar to yours get processed. It's extremely informative.

There probably isn't duty counsel or anything for that court, but there might be. It could be that a nearby law school has law students giving help for free.

When you're there you go to the counter with a big smile and say that you'd like some information. How do you set a firm court date? How do you get your "disclosure" in advance?

Disclosure is your copy of the documents to be used by the police and crown against you.

Often they'll mail it to you, but if you're going there to check it out you can ask for it or put in a written request for it in person.

You probably won't be able to pick it up right away, but they'll tell you how long it'll take, what number to call and ask later, or they'll take your number and address and mail it when ready or contact you when it's ready. Ask family and friends if they've ever used a lawyer for a traffic offense.

There's no jury. You aren't going to jail.

But I won't lie, this is likely a serious charge, involving fine and possibly demerit points, so don't take it lightly.

You and your girlfriend and her mother should write down what you remember about that night so you don't forget. They will likely be witnesses for you at your trial.

Your first court date isn't likely to be a trial anyway. If you get a lawyer or paralegal, they'll set a "pretrial conference" with the prosecuting crown attorney, and try to convince the crown to drop the charge or to offer a lesser charge for a plea.

If you have time, go hang out at court. It's interesting. In particular, you'll see how people who are angry and stupid and obviously lying to the court get pummeled.

When there, check the dockets. Look for cases being tried with the same offense as yours.

They will likely set a trial date. If you want to plead guilty on the spot they'll let you, but I don't recommend it. You weren't there. There should be a chance you'll be acquitted altogether.

The most important thing is to arrange for getting your disclosure and then taking it to a lawyer or paralegal experienced in such cases to review it and give you an opinion.

Good plan.

Don't worry, that won't help. The more you know about the process, and more familiar you become with the court itself, the easier this will be.

Absolutely. You can take notes if you wish. Just turn your cell phone off, remove your hat, spit out the gum, and don't bring food or drink into the court with you.

I doubt it. You have no record. But you could still get a big fine and demerit points if the court concludes you were driving and you caused damage and then fled the scene.

Look, I don't have a crystal ball and can't make promises, but I've never heard of someone going to jail on a highway traffic charge, except for the most egregious offenses, and they get sent up to a provincial court judge for sentencing.

Any other question or comment? If so then please reply. If you're satisfied with our discussion then please give a positive rating so that I get credit for helping you today.

Here's what's probably expected of you: show up in the range, your disclosure will be ready by then, and you'll be given a firm court date for the future.

Get the evidence together if you can, but cell phone calls often don't prove much.

The witnesses are more important.

Either is fine. Making those notes will help keep their memories fresh.

Not really. You have two people who can say that you definitely weren't at the scene of the accident.

Yes, absolutely.

Only this: when you go to court, be nice to the staff and people there. To them, it's just a job. If you're friendly they'll be friendly to you. If you're upset, they won't be inclined to help you much.

You'll see lots of others coming in all made and complaining about "the system", but that won't help at all.

Sure. That's more evidence. Getting video into a trial has special rules, but you don't need to worry about that for now.

Like an affidavit from the person who shot the video, verification proof of date/time, copies made for the court and crown. But you don't have to worry about that for now.

You don't have to rent a tux, but it always helps to be clean, dressed nice (shows professionalism and respect for the court), groomed, and polite.

Sure. But I don't want to be specific, because what happens to you will be different. And different courts have different procedural details.

You are entitled to your disclosure before you have a trial or have to make a plea.

The thread will stay open. But I'd appreciate a positive rating. You can find me again here.

The officer who gave you the ticket might have nothing to do with the investigation or charge, maybe he's just delivering the summons.

The officer investigating the accident should have some evidence upon which he can conclude that you might be found guilty. It was your car after all, and that's probably enough.

Enough to convince the police that you should be charged, not necessarily enough to convict I mean.

That will depend how busy the crown's office is. It might be that the disclosure is unlikely to be ready until January 21, which is why they told you to come in at some point during that 2 week period so they can give it to you and give you a firm first court date.

That seems odd to me, but I'm not in charge there. That's partly why I recommend you go down there this week and ask them, and watch and learn how things work down there.

You seem more relaxed about it all, which is good.

Good. You should do the same. I'm not saying that you have to compare notes and make sure that everyone's stories match up exactly, there will naturally be some variation in each person's memory. But writing it down and reading it over and adding to it over the next few months keeps those memories fresh and reliable.

It would, if they were exactly the same. But they don't need to be. The judge knows that.

So if you make the last reply here, the site keeps sending me alerts that you're waiting for me. Feel free to reply when you're ready or have another question or comment.

You don't have to enter a plea until after you've had your disclosure and time to review it with legal counsel if you wish.

I don't know if you can get the disclosure before the summons date, maybe the summons date is to give the crown's office time to get the disclosure together. These are offices swimming in paperwork, maybe they don't get it ready until right before.

OK, your summons tells you to show up at court during a certain period. That won't be for a plea or anything. That will be to get your disclosure, and set another specific court date. Court might be running the day you go, but you don't have to plea or anything. Just get your disclosure and ask for an adjournment.

A girlfriend or family isn't the best because they are more likely to lie for you, but it's up to the judge to decide their credibility after they testify.

A cab receipt would be an excellent alibi.

You didn't get a receipt? The cab company should have a record of the trip, call them and say you would like a receipt for the trip you made that night.

They should still have record of it. Call them now. Say you need your receipt for that date, where you were picked up and went to, and what time it was. They should have that on their system.

If you were literally in the cab at around the time of the accident, that would help.

I don't know what the bar receipt would illustrate, but you should get it anyway for your lawyer. It might be useful for something.

It might. If the accident was such that you couldn't have walked away without injury, then sure.

It couldn't hurt.

OK, can I make an observation? You're starting to think of me as "your lawyer". I'm not. I'm here to give you information. I can't give you legal advice that you can rely on in court.

I think you need to get to court and start taking charge of what's happening. I can't be there for you. That's the simple reality.

I appreciate that. But my opinion doesn't really matter, when you get right down to it.

The lawyer who has reviewed your disclosure, that's whose opinion matters to you.

Yeah, but it's your ass on the line, not mine. We've never met and we aren't going to. I think you should get to court, arrange for your disclosure as soon as possible, keep accumulating your evidence, then take it all to a lawyer in person.

You don't need to spend any money on legal fees yet, you need the disclosure before anything can be decided.

Well, start calling around and see who is good in these matters.

And find out when you'll get the disclosure.

Those are your first steps.

Good stuff. Now, the site is here to make money, and I'm here to do the same. May I ask you to rate the service now? You can still come back any time.

Super. Thanks. Let me know how it's going.