Now what if you do testify, how does the judge determine or the jury, credibility, your credibility in the crown’s case. Well it’s a three step test. And the first part of the test is this. You testify. If the judge and jury will say to themselves, “Do I believe the accused evidence?”. If the answer to that is “Yes, I believe them”. Then you are going to be acquitted. That’s hard to get to that point. Let’s face it. Politically, it’s difficult for judges to say that in open court. I’ve won many cases where they have, but you don’t need to get to that level, you just need to create reasonable doubt. But again, judges sometimes don’t want to anger a complainant by saying they believe the accused or her. So we go on to the second part of test. Does the evidence of the accused that is my testimony or evidence that I presented or other than my testimony or my other witnesses that I presented, does that create a reasonable doubt? If the answer to that is “yes”, you win. That’s great, you are not necessary believed, it doesn’t matter a wins a win.
Now the third part of the test is very powerful as well. I’ve often heard judges say, look, I don’t believe the accused, or you don’t necessarily believe the accused, but does their evidence leaves me with reasonable doubt, and the answer is “yes it does”. So judges will often say that, I don’t necessarily believe the accused but I am left with reasonable doubt. That’s a win. A wins a win a win, on branches one to three and that’s why you could win many criminal trials in Canada and especially when it’s your word versus the word of another complainant.
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