In one of my other videos, I cover the topic where you are charged with sexual assault and the complainant or victim is an adult, that is, they’re eighteen or over. So, let’s talk about the situation where you are charged with a crime such as sexual assault on a minor. For example, a person under sixteen years old. In that situation, the maximum penalty is fourteen years in prison. In this situation, you are entitled to a preliminary hearing. So this can complicate matters, in terms of the length of your trial. How long everything is going to take. So let’s pretend the Crown elects by indictment, let’s assume that, and you decide to have a preliminary hearing. So you are going to have your first court appearance, that’s going to be like, three to six weeks after you are charged, there’s going to be two, three, four months, of remand appearances, you’re going to have a judicial pretrial which is a meeting with the judge, meeting with crowns as well, now you are in a position to set a trial date. For example, if you elect, Ontario Court of Justice. So in the Ontario court of Justice, your trial dates going to be, well it could be up to eighteen months from the day you of your arrest for example, depending on the county, there’s a lot of delays. But if you elect preliminary hearing, you’re going to start with a preliminary hearing, in the Ontario Court of Justice, that’s going to take place again months down the road up to eighteen months, more or likely probably, depending on the county, twelve to fifteen months’ range, your case is then going to move in the Superior Court of Justice, you’re going to have a trial there, and that’s going to be at least another twelve months down the road. When you tally all that up on a sexual assault involving a minor, that is a person sixteen and under, that’s the age of consent, you could be looking at your trial date at least thirty months down the road, hopefully, sooner, because, you know, some counties can you get you much sooner that but there’s a lot of delays in the province, it’s a long process, a lot of work and hard preparation to get ready for your trial, and you’ve got to basically, sit and wait, and go through that stressed but that’s one of the reasons why you should hire a lawyer.

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