“When To Request Disclosure”

Hi there,

Background:

I was charged with two traffic offenses in mid-July. Submitted my non-guilty plea to request a court date at the end of July. Received my 2 notices of trial with a mid-January court date. Applied and received an adjournment to early April as I am scheduled to be out of town for the original date.

Question:

I'm going to be requesting disclosure but am wondering when I should do so. Since not receiving disclosure in advance of the trial is beneficial, should I be waiting until the last minute to fax in the request? In reading the forums, it appears that the last allowable date to request disclosure is 9 weeks before the trial. Is this correct? I think I remember seeing a sign at the office where I applied for the court date saying something about a current wait time of 90 days for disclosure. Does this officially over-rule the 9 week rule or is the 9 week rule set by precedent cases. It seems to me that 9 weeks is more than adequate to turn around this request. If I send it in now, I worry that I am giving them way to much time to comply, but worry that if the 9 week rule has changed I might lose in court as I didn't give them 90 days notice. Also, is a fax confirmation adequate proof of the requests being fax being sent in with enough lead time?

Thanks in advance for your help. Any other tips would definitely be welcome as well!

Cheers.

celerygeneral wrote:Since not receiving disclosure in advance of the trial is beneficial, should I be waiting until the last minute to fax in the request?

There's nothing beneficial about not receiving disclosure before your trial date. You want your disclosure as quick as possible. By doing the bare minimum, you're only opening yourself up to criticism. They are just going to adjourn your trial anyways and you'll be forced to waste another day dealing with it.

If you do not ask for disclosure until the last minute, then the JP will just reschedule your trial to another date AND the time will not count towards "right to a speedy trial" as it was you who caused the delay.

You want to ask for disclsoure right away as soon as you get your notice of trial and then if you do not get it, you need to ask them where it is a couple times right up to about a couple before the trial. Then if they do not provide it, it works in your favor. It only works in your favor if you asked for it AND if you can show you made an effort to ask them about.

Thanks for the insight! Much appreciated.