The criminal process typically begins with an arrest - that is when the police charge you with an offence. Once you have been charged, you can expect to endure the following steps:

1. Form of Arrest
Not all arrests look like a scene out of Law & Order. An arrest occurs when you are charged with a criminal offence. This can be achieved in a number of different ways. Some examples include:

- Being handcuffed at the side of the road after "blowing over" while driving
- Being formally advised of your rights when the police attend at your home - for instance, when an allegation of domestic assault is made
- Being issued a "Promise to Appear" after speaking with police at the station

All of these mechanisms constitute arrest; the most important indicator of your arrest - besides being kept in custody, of course - is if the police give you any kind of paperwork which includes a COURT DATE.

2. Fingerprinting and Photographs
Upon your arrest, you will likely be given a piece of paper with two dates on it: one is the date of your FIRST APPEARANCE in Court. The other is a time and day when you must attend at the police station to be fingerprinted and photographed. This is standard police practice. If you are eventually ACQUITTED, or of the charges against you are WITHDRAWN, you can ask the police to destroy the fingerprints and photos that they took.

3. Bail Hearing
If, after being arrested, you are not released from the police station, you will be brought to court for a bail hearing. At that time, you will have the opportunity to present the Court with a Surety - someone who is willing to take you in and put up some money, cash or bond, to secure your attendance in court.

4. First Appearance in Court
Your form of release will include the date of your first appearance in Court. You must appear in person, befoe the Justice of the Peace. At that time, you can request DISCLOSURE, and will receive the CROWN SCREENING FORM. You will then set another date, at which time you, your lawyer, or duty counsel acting on your behalf may conduct a PRE-TRIAL conference.

5. Pre-Trial Period
Between the First appearance and trial date, you may appear in Court many more or very few times. The average number of appearances that an accused person makes before setting a trial date is 8. A number of things may take place during this pre-trial period:

(a) Disclosure will be provided. In Canadian criminal law, the Crown and police are under an obligation to provide an accused person with all information in their possession which may be relevant to the case. That includes lists of witnesses, statements from witnesses, notes of the police officers involved, any photgraphs taken, copies of any videotaped or audiotaped statements, and information about the witnesses to the events. Your lawyer will likely seek additional material, like the criminal records of all named witnesses, for instance. It is during the pre-trial period that these requests will be made.
(b) Pre-Trial Conferences or Resolution Meetings. Depending where your charges are laid (i.e. Toronto, Scarborough, Peel, Halton), the Court may require that your lawyer, or duty counsel acting on your behalf, meet with the Crown to conduct a pre-trial conference or resolution meeting before you set a date for trial. At that meeting, the Crown and your lawyer will discuss the case, including any Crown position on things like diversion, withdrawal, availability of a peace bond or sentence on a guilty plea.
(c) Judicial Pre-Trial: Dpending on the length and complexity of your case, your lawyer may have to conduct a Judicial Pre-Trial (or "JPT"). At a JPT, your lawyer, a Crown attorney and a judge of the Provincial Court all sit down to discuss the case. This meeting is held to review the positions of both parties and see what a judge thinks about these positions. Although the judge's opinion is not binding, both accused and Crown tend to take it quite seriously. At the end of this meeting, counsel will usually be able to set a trial date.
(d) Guilty Plea: After discussing the matter with your lawyer, you may decide to plead guilty to the charges against you. This can be done at any time in the proceeding. You are strongly urged to obtain legal advice before deciding to enter a plea.

6. Trial
You should be prepared to accept a rather long delay between the day you get charged and the day you go to trial. Our courts are increasingly clogged, and delays extend, in some courts, to over 18 months.

7. Trial Outcomes
A number of outcomes are possible at the end of a trial. The most common are conviction, where you are found to be guilty of the offence, acquittal, where you are found not guilty, and a stay of proceedings. In a stay of proceedings, a judge decides that, because of the wya in which your trial has taken place, the state should no longer be allowed to prosecute you. A stay is just like an acquittal.

8. Sentencing Options
If you are convicted, there are a number of options available to the sentencing judge. He or she may order you to spend time in custody, or may order that you serve a period of probation, pay a fine, do some community service, or a combination of those things. He or she may equally impose no sentence at all.The judge may also issue a discharge to you, which means that, after a period of probation, it will be "as though" you never committed an offence.