OHTA.ca

Hello everyone,

I have not recieved my court date via mail and had to ask them on the phone and they gave me a few weeks short notice when my trial is. I immediately requested for disclosure and still not recieved it. Tomorrow is my trial.

Should I ask for adjournment based on disclosure not recieved ? Should i accept the disclosure from the prosecutor or reject it ? i have been reading several people saying dont accept disclosure in trial so Im confused. It has been aprox. 10 months since the offence date. Court is in Toronto.

Thank you in advance

What would be the purpose of failing to accept the disclosure? You requested it...presumably you want/need it... Wouldn't that just mean you get it later? To what end?

Bil22 wrote:i have been reading several people saying dont accept disclosure in trial so Im confused.

Nobody is going to recommend you refuse disclosure. If there's any advice for someone in your position, you wouldn't want to be in a position where you receive disclosure and be forced to go into trial right after reading it for the first time. For that, you'd have have to convince the justice that an adjournment would be in the interest of a fair trial.

If you can convince them that you never received a notice of trial, had to contact the courthouse, and requested disclosure immediately afterwords, you might have some luck.

Thanks. I got an adjourment for two months from now. Original offence date was june 2012. Officer seems vigilant about showing up. The disclosure has 4 lines. Only a photocopy of the officers notes. Cannot read half of it easily. Has the car info, phone info and thats it. The rest i cant make out. What can I do with this case? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again

You have an opportunity to go the 11b route; it appears it has been 12 months since your offense.

bend has already noted, you will have to convince the JP you did not receive your notice of trial by mail; you exercised due diligence by calling the courts and learning of the date and immediately requested for disclosure

you received it at trial, required more time to mount a defense and make a full answer; for the 11b, you'll then have to argue how you were prejudiced by the delay from the date you filed your ticket to your next trial date

the prosecution may argue you did not give them enough time to prepare the disclosure, they require 6-8 weeks; it's important that you argue it's an institutional delay