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What is the principle of judicial independence?
citizens have the right to have their cases tried by tribunals that are fair, impartial and immune from political inteference
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What are the rates for property crimes?
roughly equal number of property and violent offences
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What is the most frequent type of case?
impaired driving and common asault (11% each)
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What is the rate of cases for homicide?
0.2%
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What is the median elapse time from 1st to last court appearance?
237 days in 06/07- increasing rate
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What offence takes longer?
Homicide 450 days
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What is the shortest type of case?
breach of probations (106 days)
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What is the average court apperances?
4 to 6 in last 10 years
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Why are some of the reasons for the avg court apperances?
- Charter of Rights and Freedoms
- more cases with multiple charges
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What are the levels in the Provincial Court System?
- Two levels
- Provincial
- Superior- a) trial b) appeals
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What is the lowest level of courts in Canada?
Provincial level
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Which level of courts in Canada hears most of the cases?
Provincial
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Does the provincial court have juries?
no
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What types of cases are seen in the Provincial Courts?
- YCJA
- There is more and more cases (due to backlog)
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What types of courts are there in the Provincial level?
- specialized courts at this level
- examples: drug, domestic violence, aboriginal courts
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What is the highest level in the Provincial Court System
The Provincial Superior Courts
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What is the % of cases heard by the Provincial Superior Courts?
10%
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Does the Provincial Superior Courts have jury?
sometimes
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What are the levels of the Provincial Superior Courts?
- 1) Trials. Serious Cases. Appeals from lower court
- 2) Appeals from superior trials
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What the last resort court?
The Supreme Court of Canada
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When was the Supreme Court of Canada Established?
under the Constitutuion Act 1867
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What types of cases does the Supreme Court of Canada hears?
- cases from all over the country
- complex issues
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How many judges are in the Supreme Court?
- 9 judges are appointed from provincial superior courts
- 3 must be from Quebec?
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How come 3 judges must be chosen from Quebec for the Supreme Court of Canada?
Because they are trained in civil law
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What are the criticism of the Supreme Court?
- for engaging in social activism on one hand and being deterential to law enforcement on the other
- criticism of court decisons that it perceives have undermined anti-terrorism effort
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What is common law?
law found in statutes ( Criminal Code) and judicial precendents
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What is stare decisis?
hierachy in following decisions
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What are the basis of stare decisis?
- the higher courts set precedents that the lower courts must follow
- like cases should be treated alike: same rulebook for everyone, even though the is room for judicial interpretation
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What are the principles of stare decisis?
- presumption of innocente: defendant deemed innocent until proven guilty
- Crown bears burder of proof
- Doli in capax: not criminally responsible under 12
- Insanity: no one criminally responsible if incapable of knowing act was wrong
- Attempts are crime
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What are the types of classification of offences?
- 1) summary convictions
- 2) indictable convictions
- 3) Hybrid
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What is summary convictions?
- less serious offences
- must begin within 6 months
- provincial court judge sitting alone
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What is indictable offences?
- serious offences
- may carry offences prison sentences of 14 years or more
- no time limit
- no specific court..depending on the offences
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What is hybrid offences?
- in between, specific in C.C can be either
- crown decides whether to proceed as summary or indictable
- depends on the seriousness and delays
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What are the two elements of a jury trial
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What is trial by jury?
- tries the facts and determines guilt, as does the judge
- must be unanimous to convict
- dont give reasons for verdict, whereas a judge does
- judge instructs jury on the law
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What is the prosecution process?
- Diversion
- Laying infromation and charge
- Reject of approved, then charges laid
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What is diversion?
programs designed to keep offenders from being prosecuted and convicted in the CJS
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What is laying information and a charge?
police lay infromation on offender before justice of peace and waits to be rejected or approved
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what is the rate of charged being laid?
in violent or property crimes..charges not laid in 1/3
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What are some features of legal aid?
- began in 1970s
- run by non-profit socities in each province
- BC: legal service society
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what are the 3 forms of legal aid?
- judicare
- public defence
- mixed model
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What is judicare?
private lawyers paid by the society on a fee for service basis
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What is public defence?
salries, staff lawers, paid on a salary basis
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what is the mixed model for legal aid?
usually employs a public defender model in large, urban centres and judicare model in rural areas
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What are the contentious issues for legal aid?
- eligibility
- competence
- cost : BC gov. controbutes $62.7 million a year
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What about the competence of Legal Aid representation?
- research shows no significant different between types of aid
- private lawyers are more sucessful(46%) than legal aid lawyers (28%) in obtaining an acquittal
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What is arrignment and plea?
- takes place early in the process
- charges are read in open court
- accused enters in plea: guilty or not
- pleading not guilty does not mean innocence
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What is plea bargaining?
An agreement whereby an accused pleads guilty in excchange for the promise of a benefit (reduced sentence, charges, etc)
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What is the role of presecutors?
excludes any notion of winning or losing: his fuction is a matter of public duty
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what do the prosecutors do?
- prosecute for indictable offences and summary offences
- provide legal advice to stakeholders
- examine cases/documents sent by police, etc
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What is prosecutorial discretion?
warrant advice, charge approval/denial, timing of the charge, staying proceedings, withdraw charges, plea bargaining
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