Criminal Trial and Appeal Lawyers

Daniel Lerner

Daniel Lerner explains the Ghomeshi peace bond (interview on May 9, 2016)

While I was away, Jian Ghomeshi’s trial was resolved in favour of a peace bond. This is not an uncommon resolution, and is something I try to negotiate for many of my clients who facing similar charges (especially minor domestic-related charges).

However, not everyone understands what a peace bond is, or what it means for a person who enters into it. I explained some of this to CBC two weeks ago – in print, radio, and TV.

To read the print article, click here.

Daniel Lerner interviewed by The Canadian Press about witness preparation

With such a large media attention on the high-profile Jian Ghomeshi trial, Canadians are getting a unique opportunity into how witnesses are challenged and cross-examined in a “he said / she said” case. I was recently interviewed by Paola Loriggio with The Canadian Press about how a Crown prosecutor prepares witnesses in these type of cases.

The full article can be found here.

Supreme Court weighs in on administrative drivers license suspensions

Most provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia, have administrative consequences that occur when the police discover a person to be drinking and driving (even if the driver’s blood alcohol concentration is below the legal limit for a criminal charge). An administrative act is something that the state can do without a hearing or weighing in on the merits. These can include immediate license suspensions and vehicle impoundments.

In Ontario, the immediate administrative consequences of drinking and driving are:

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Daniel Lerner interviewed by thecourt.ca on R. v. St. Cloud

thecourt.ca is a blog run by the students of the Osgoode Hall Law School where students write about recent cases from the Supreme Court of Canada. On occasion, they interview a lawyer familiar with the issue before the Supreme Court to answer questions about the case from a lawyer’s perspective.

Recently, I was interviewed by thecourt.ca about the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in R. v. St. Cloud (which addresses certain grounds in the Criminal Code to deny bail, as well as the procedure for reviewing bail decisions). The article was published on August 18, 2015, and can be found by clicking here.