Step 4: Pre-Trial Strategies

Summary:

• The only way to win is to avoid a conviction.
• Find out what evidence they have through disclosure.
• You have constitutional rights they must respect. If they don't, then stop the trial.

When your trial is scheduled you will receive a notice in the mail indicating the charge and the date and time of your trial. The trial will be several months to over a year away. If you need to change your trial date, see Step 2.

The period between receiving your notice of trial and the actual trial is the most important for your defence. The point of why you are fighting your ticket is to avoid a conviction. To do this, you want any one of the following to happen:

• the charge against you is withdrawn; or
• the justice stops the trial from proceeding; or
• you receive a verdict of not guilty.

These are three very different outcomes. But they all mean you avoid a conviction which is the result you want. Each outcome is achieved in different ways but all happen around the time of your trial.

The information in Step 4 explains what you can do before the trial. You want to be in a position to win your case BEFORE it goes to trial. What you do here lays the foundation for the winning outcomes above.