In the past year, the ALS Criminal Staff Lawyers (Matthew Malott and Maxwell Hill) have served over 100 clients, ranging from summary legal advice to full trial representation. In nearly all of our direct representation cases, we have secured outcomes for our clients that exceeded either their expectations, or defeated the position of the Crown.
In particular, our criminal services found much success in advocating on behalf of Indigenous women who had been charged with assault after standing up to habitual domestic abuse. We have been able to present persuasive arguments to the Toronto Crown Attorney’s office highlighting the impact of stereotypical depictions of Indigenous women on the conduct of police and Crowns in assessing cases of alleged domestic violence where the accused are themselves victims.
Our largest area of success, however, lies in assisting accused persons who would otherwise not qualify for a Legal Aid Ontario certificate on account of not being at risk of incarceration. However, the collateral effects of a criminal record are no less harmful, even if the sentence does not include custody. The Criminal Division fills a significant gap in the way criminal legal services have traditionally been delivered in Ontario.
ALS’s criminal services also serve an important function in applying pressure to institutions, often securing better resolutions for our clients simply by virtue of our presence as focused advocates. Crown attorneys often expect accused persons charged with less serious offences to simply plead guilty and acquiesce to their sentencing positions. The presence of counsel forces Crowns to spend more time on files they would otherwise have largely ignored, and this in turn leads to better outcomes for ALS’ clients. Our ability to devote as much attention as necessary to individual files, without the same time and billing pressures that certificate counsel experience, allows us to ensure that systemic dysfunction does not encroach upon the level of advocacy we can provide to our clients.