Criminal lawyer - Hamilton, ON

What the New Bail Rules Mean for Your Case

Bill C-14 and Ontario’s Bill 75 changed both who has to prove what at a bail hearing, and what release actually costs.

Here are the changes most likely to affect you:

1. More charges now put the onus on you. Reverse onus has been extended to break and enter of a home, auto theft connected to violence or organized crime, extortion involving violence, human trafficking and smuggling, and assaults involving choking or strangulation. It also now applies if you have two or more prior convictions for similar serious violent offences.
2. A ten-year lookback instead of five. If you were previously convicted of an offence where a weapon was used, threatened, or attempted, that conviction now counts against you for ten years rather than five.
3. The ladder principle no longer protects you in reverse onus cases. Courts are no longer required to start with the least restrictive form of release. I build a bail plan designed to be scrutinized closely, because that is exactly what the court is now required to do.
4. Your surety may no longer qualify. Anyone convicted of a serious offence in the past ten years is generally disqualified from acting as a surety. I identify that problem before the hearing, not during it.