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Criminal Lawyers Edmonton

A Team of Experienced Criminal Defence lawyers serving Edmonton and the surrounding area

If you have been charged with a criminal offence and are required to attend Court in Edmonton, our Criminal Lawyers Edmonton can help! We are a full service criminal law office handling all types of criminal and regulatory charges from Mischief to Murder, with a particularly strong focus on DUI’s, Violence, and Domestic Violence charges. A short list of the types of charges we handle includes:

• Assault; Assault with a Weapon/Bodily Harm; Aggravated Assault
• Threats; Confinement; Kidnapping
• Sexual Assault; Child Sexual Assault; Child Pornography; Voyeurism; Trespass
• Theft and Fraud; False Pretences; Forged Documents
• Break and Enter; Robbery; Possession of Stolen Property
• Impaired Driving; Over 80/.08; Refusal; DUI; Care or Control
• Dangerous Driving; Disqualified Driving; Prohibited Driving; Flight from Police
• Improper Storage of Firearms; Concealed Weapon; Discharge Firearms
• Drug Possession; Drug Trafficking; Drug Import/Export; Drug Grow/Production
• Youth Offences
• Traffic Offences; Careless Driving; Hit and Run; Speeding; No Insurance
• Breach or Probation/CSO/Release/EPO; Fail to Appear for Court

As one of our firm’s central offices is in Edmonton, we have intricate knowledge of Edmonton’s criminal court system and know how to quickly and effectively resolve your criminal charges.

The Edmonton courthouse is located at 1A Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, AB and is open Monday through Friday 8:15AM – 4PM. Because a very large number of criminal matters are heard daily in the Edmonton courthouse, some courtrooms and floors are dedicated to specific types of criminal matters. For example, in the Edmonton Courthouse, courtroom 258 is dedicated specifically to hearing domestic violence charges, courtroom 267 is dedicated to special prosecutions and federal matters, and we have a special Drug Court held every Wednesday at 1:00pm in courtroom 267. If you have been charged with a minor offence like shoplifting under $5000.00, or a simple assault, many of your appearances will be sent to the Case Management Office (CMO), a counter on the main floor of the courthouse. At the CMO counter, there are no judges, just Justices of the Peace that can note your presence and can assist you with scheduling your matter. All other criminal docket appearances will typically take place in a docket courtroom, like courtroom 265. A a large number of criminal matters will be heard in courtroom 265, so that room is reserved for simple appearances like adjournments, entering pleas, and setting trial dates. If you are going to trial, the location of your trial will usually be determined on the first day of trial, and will take place in one of many rooms that are reserved for trials to be heard.

Although virtually all substantive law is the same whether charges occur in Edmonton or elsewhere in Alberta, there are some key differences that you should be aware of. Below are some of the main distinctions, but for specifics about your case, it’s important that you contact one of our criminal defence lawyers directly so you get the right advice.

The Investigation

While many cities in Alberta are policed by the RCMP, the city Edmonton has its own police force comprised of approximately 2500 sworn and unsworn members. For all intents and purposes, the powers of investigation, detention, and arrest are the same between the police in Edmonton and the police or RCMP in other cities in Alberta. However, their training policies, techniques, and oversight is quite different. Further, due to the size and sophistication of the Edmonton Police Force, they have a number of special departments or units designed to investigate different types of crimes. For example, some special units include the Domestic Offender Crimes Section that was created to deal specifically with domestic violence, the Drug Section that investigates drug offenses in Edmonton, the Economic Crimes Section that investigates fraud related crimes in Edmonton, and a National Weapons Enforcement Support Team that investigates firearms offences in Edmonton.

When arrested in Edmonton, the EPS will bring you to a centralized processing area called the Arrest Processing Unit. The Arrest Processing Unit is in the basement of the Edmonton Police Headquarters at 962-103A Avenue, Edmonton AB, T5H 0H7. This is where you will be housed until your bail hearing, and this is where you will have to attend to give your fingerprints (if they are not taken at the time of your initial release).

The Bail / Release Process

In Edmonton, the bail and release process can vary depending on the type of offence you have been charged with. For very minor offences like the possession of small quantities of drugs or shoplifting, you will likely be released post-arrest with with an undertaking to a peace officer. The undertaking will typically have conditions that you are required to comply with such as not to possess drugs, report to a probation officer, etc until the case is over. If your fingerprints are not taken at the time that you are arrested, you will also be given a date and time that you need to attend a police station for fingerprinting. In Edmonton the location that you need attend for fingerprinting is the Edmonton Police Headquarters.

For many other offences, you will not be able to leave jail without a formal bail hearing. For example, for most cases of domestic assault, sexual assault, and serious property and violent offences in Edmonton, the police have a policy of requiring that a bail hearing be held either with a Judge or a Justice of the Peace before an individual is released. In Edmonton, the Bail Hearing Office is located on the Main Floor, SW Exterior entry of the Brownlee Building at 10365 97 St NW. Unfortunately, this process can take upto 24 hours, so you or your loved one could be sitting in a jail cell for a very long time just because of the EPS policy. Once you are released, if you are deemed to be a high risk offender you can also be subject to monitoring by the Targeted Offender Section (TOS) of the Edmonton Police. The TOS is a special section of the police force that monitors and manages offenders on pretrial release and post-trial release in Edmonton. Should you be caught violating the terms of your release, you will be brought back into custody and will have a far lower likelihood of securing pre-trial release after your breach.

If you are reading this before you are charged, it is very important that you ask for the first available court date. The reason for this is that the EPS might put fairly restrictive conditions on you, such as not to communicate with the complainant or go back to the residence. For spouses with children, this creates a logistical nightmare! The situation can be fixed, but often not until the matter goes back to court.

The Court Process

The courthouse in Edmonton is open each business day of the week, and has specialized courtrooms for youth matters, drug matters, domestic violence matters, docket matters, sentencing matters, and trial matters. This helps streamline the court process significantly. However, because our courts must address extremely high numbers of criminal matters on any given day, in many instances you could be waiting for a significant amount of time before you get a trial date. The amount of time it takes you to go to trial is often extended by numerous adjournments made for things such as obtaining counsel and ordering disclosure. If you are self-represented at your initial appearance(s), make sure you do not delay in hiring a lawyer. The longer you wait to seek quality advice, the longer you will remain caught in the criminal court system with your charges hanging over your head.

If you do have to appear in court on your own, show up at your scheduled time. In most courtrooms, court is in session at either 9:00am or 9:30am. Once you have arrived, you can expect to wait around for the good part of the morning until your matter gets called. Remember that lawyer matters get called first, so if you attend unrepresented it will take even longer to speak to your matter. While you will likely have to wait for some time until the court addresses your matter, it is still important that you are on time. By arriving on time you will have an opportunity to let the clerk know that you are present before court is in session, and you will have an opportunity to speak to duty counsel if one is available. The most effective way to reduce the amount of time you spend waiting in court is to have one of our criminal defence lawyers handle the matter for you. Once we are retained we can make appearances on your behalf, and you will not have to attend until we tell you to do so. We will not only help you move your matter through the court system quickly and effectively, but we will also help you achieve an optimal resolution to your matter and peace of mind.

Why Hire Us

With centralized offices in Edmonton and Calgary, and serving clients in cities throughout all of Alberta, we have considerable experience defending criminal charges in this jurisdiction and an excellent reputation. Rest assured we can handle most (and sometimes all) aspects of your case without you ever having to attend court at all. If you are outside of the Edmonton area and cannot meet us in person, we offer a free initial consultation by telephone or video link. We can review the circumstances of your case, the process, the fee structure and what we can do to help remotely. Moreover, because we have a whole team of lawyers, we can offer a broad range of fees and flexible payment plans to meet virtually any budget. We pride ourselves on providing not only the best result possible, but exceptional customer service along the way. Contact one of our experienced Edmonton-based criminal defence lawyers today and judge for yourself.