Can assault charges be dropped in Canada?
Let’s get one thing clear: Every assault charge is serious and only the Crown Attorney’s office has the power to have it withdrawn. Even if the victim recants their testimony, the charge remains in place, which is a good reason to have a seasoned defense attorney at your side during the process.
The presence of a full criminal conviction on your permanent record is straightforward. It means that you went through a complete judicial process, having been arrested, with files charged, eventually leading to a trial, a guilty verdict and an appropriate sentence and/or fine carried out. ( assault charges )
But not every arrest actually leads to this final result. In some cases, criminal charges go all the way to trial where a jury decides on a “not guilty” verdict, and thus a defendant is acquitted. And in some cases, a criminal conviction never even goes to trial at all, the charges may be dropped, or the case may be dismissed well before a trial. But how does this happen? And why? What’s the difference between dropping charges and dismissing a case?
Charges Dropped
Before a trial can even occur, a person must be arrested—with sufficient cause—and must eventually attend a hearing. During a hearing, charges are officially filed, a plea is entered for the defendant and a trial date is set. If the charges that are filed at this point do so without any kind of intervention or interruption, then the case moves forward to a trial.
However, if charges are not filed, and the case does not even move forward into a trial, or the prosecution decides not to pursue the case further, this would be considered having charges dropped, and can occur for any number of reasons. A person being arrested because of a physical resemblance to a suspect that police are looking for, for example, can quickly lead to charges dropped once the real suspect is caught.
If the police arrest someone on an assault or domestic abuse charge, but the person assaulted does not wish to actually file charges, then the charges are dropped. And finally, if someone is charged, goes to trial and suddenly clear-cut evidence arrives during the investigation, exonerating the defendant—such as a DNA analysis the conclusively proves no wrongdoing—the charges may be dropped before even going to trial since there is now no point.
Case Dismissed in assault charges
When charges or a case are dismissed, on the other hand, this is a decision that is handed down by the judge presiding over a court case. Having a case dismissed is very different from having charges dropped because, from a record perspective, those charges still exist in a file somewhere.
A case dismissal means that the judge has elected not to let a case go any further in court. One of the most common reasons for this is that even when an arrest has been made, and charges filed, a prosecutor may not have a reasonable enough amount of evidence to conduct a fair trial, and the judge, realizing this, will dismiss a case for “want of prosecution.”
It’s Still There
The important thing to be aware of in both cases is that even if no conviction exists in a permanent record, evidence of an arrest, fingerprinting and even charges filed may still be present. Depending on your activities, such as travel across the border to the United States, or having a background check conducted for a job interview, these lingering traces of a near conviction can still have an impact. Your fingerprints may be seen on a CPIC or RCMP report.
Taghavi Law PC Canada, however, can help. A process known as a file destruction can eliminate even these trace vestiges, restoring a completely clean record. Contact us for information on how to do this quickly and successfully.
what is an Assault ?
An assault is the act of inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in criminal prosecution, civil liability, or both. Generally, the common law definition is the same in criminal and tort law.
Traditionally, common law legal systems had separate definitions for assault and battery. When this distinction is observed, battery refers to the actual bodily contact, whereas assault refers to a credible threat or attempt to cause battery. Some jurisdictions combined the two offences into assault and battery, which then became widely referred to as “assault”. The result is that in many of these jurisdictions, assault has taken on a definition that is more in line with the traditional definition of battery. The legal systems of civil law and Scots law have never distinguished assault from battery.
Legal systems generally acknowledge that assaults can vary greatly in severity. In the United States, an assault can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. In England and Wales and Australia, it can be charged as either common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) or grievous bodily harm (GBH). Canada also has a three-tier system: assault, assault causing bodily harm and aggravated assault. Separate charges typically exist for sexual assaults, affray and assaulting a police officer. Assault may overlap with an attempted crime; for example an assault may be charged as an attempted murder if it was done with intent to kill.
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