Step 3: Preparation

Summary:

• How to prepare for trial.
• Document what happened.
• Introduction to the Provincial Offences Act.
• Research your charge.

While you are waiting for your notice of trial, this is not down time. Use your time to thoroughly read this website. There is a lot of information here and it will take time to go through it.

Preparation is the key to success. Use this time wisely to prepare for trial.

Make Detailed Notes

If it takes up to two years for your trial, are you going to remember what happened? Do you remember what happened to you two years ago today? Probably not.

It is important to write down the particulars of your case so that you can recall them in great detail at your trial. You are doing this to prepare an adequate defence and, more importantly, to discredit the police officer.

To prove you are guilty the prosecutor needs witnesses who remember what happened the day you were charged. The police officer must provide evidence that you committed the offence. He must recall what happened and he should do so in great detail. He can't simply read his notes. The notes by themselves are not good enough in court. Otherwise the prosecutor wouldn't need the officer, just his notes.

The material your prepare and the evidence you gather will help you with your version of events and refute the police officer's version of events. If the officer does not remember as concisely as you do and cannot describe it with the clarity and consistency that you do then you become a more credible witness than him.

If there is a discrepancy with what you say and what the police officer says, the justice will have an impression of uncertainty about what actually happened. To be found guilty, you must be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If the justice has doubt whether you are guilty or not, then he must acquit you.