What Happens If You Miss Your Court Date In Canada?

You’ve got a criminal court date coming up, you’ve been charged with a criminal offense, and say your court dates on October 17, and you decide not to show up, or you get sick, or you panic and not show up, or there’s an emergency or a traffic accident. What happens? Well, you weren’t represented by a lawyer, so what’s going to happen is going to be pretty serious. There’s going to be a bench warrant for your arrest. You’re going to get charged with a criminal offense of under Section 145 for failing to attend court. But sometimes, you know, life happens, and sometimes you’ll be able to provide a legitimate excuse about this.

It really depends on the situation. Obviously, just intentionally not showing up with no excuse. You’re you know that criminal charge is going to stick, a failure to attend court. They can also obviously then come and arrest you. So what should you do in this situation? Let’s say you genuinely forgot, or you’re sick.

Well, you’ve got to react to the situation right away. If you’re late that day, first of all, go to court right away. Maybe there’s already been a bench warrant issued for your arrest, and you can have that rescinded. Show up at the courthouse even the next day and try and go to the counter, the Crown’s office and the clerk’s office explain it.

Maybe they haven’t exercised the warrant yet for your arrest, and maybe it can be rescinded and you can deal with it. You really in this situation, should phone a lawyer right away and get some legal advice as the bottom line, but get your medical proof, get your documentation about what happened, because obviously getting sick is a legitimate excuse for not showing up, but you really should notify the court that day and have someone attend. This is the great benefit of hiring a lawyer, because a lawyer can attend for you in Ontario for these first appearances in remand court. So you really got to react to the situation properly. So let me give you some real-life examples. Okay, so you’ve been arrested, say, for, I don’t know, assault, domestic assault, and on the date in question, you haven’t hired a lawyer yet. So your appearance, you decide not to go, for example, well, obviously, if that happens, you’re going to be charged with a criminal offense. There’s going to be a warrant for your arrest. The police are going to come and get you eventually. In that situation, you go see a lawyer right away. You can make arrangements for you to turn yourself in now, several situations could happen. They could remove your bail if you’re under bail, you could now be under arrest. They might have a bail hearing, for example, or maybe not. They could strengthen your bail conditions as well, but you want to hire a lawyer right away. Medical emergencies are a different thing, like if you show up at the police station, for example, the next day with a valid letter that, “hey, I had a heart attack,” as an extreme example, obviously they’re going to hopefully arrange another court date and not proceed with the failure to attend. So, it really depends on the situation.

It’s one thing to intentionally not show up. It’s another thing to have medical emergency. Forgetfulness is a thing that happens as well. I mean, unfortunately, some people just forget. Your lawyer is going to want to deal with that situation, hire a lawyer as well. Sometimes that charge could get withdrawn if you can establish genuine forgetfulness. But forgetfulness is not an excuse. You’re still going to face a charge. Your lawyers are going to have to negotiate their way out of it. So, it’s very serious. Failing to attend court. That’s a court order. You could face a shorter jail term for that. I mean, if you have a lengthy criminal record, it could be a long jail term if you have prior breaches or failure to attend but it’s a very serious situation. I recommend you deal with it right away. Sometimes it can be cleared up.

Sometimes it can’t, if you’re late, come later in the day, try and explain, get back on the record, go to the Crown’s office the next day, explain the situation. This may be one situation I always tell people to shut up and exercise your right to silence. This may be, and I hesitate to say this, the one situation where I might say, you know, if you show up at the police station with a medical note from your doctor that you were incapacitated that day, there may be forgiveness. I hesitate to say you should never talk to the police about anything, but maybe that’s the one situation that I might with a medical emergency. Bring your note. See what happens, but deal with it right away. Don’t stick your head in the sand, because what’s going to happen, you’re going to be at work one day and the police are going to show up in front of your boss and arrest you.

You have to deal with it. But this is a benefit of hiring a lawyer for your first attendance, because what will happen then is your lawyer will have you sign a form called a designation. That designation means your lawyer intends for you, that gets filed with your court, even if your lawyer then fails, what if your lawyer gets sick? Well, that designation is with the court. In that situation, there might be a warrant with discretion where they don’t come and arrest you so your lawyer had a heart attack on the way to court. Didn’t show up. “Hey, there’s a designation. “

The lawyer’s not here. Let’s give them a break warrant with discretion. That means your lawyer, will explain the situation next day. “Hey, I had a heart attack on the way work today.” Let’s set this for a new date. Great benefit to hiring a lawyer, but don’t put your head in the sand. Get those court dates on your fridge and show up, even if you’re ill, I would notify the court that day, have someone notify that you’re ill, and maybe it can be worked out. So, it’s a complicated situation. Don’t put your head in the sand. Deal with it. Stay informed. Stay focused and know your rights in Canada, thank you for watching our video.