Where Crown or Defence counsel are requesting a resolution judicial pre-trial (JPT), the following pre-conditions must be met:

#1.         Resolution JPT’s shall only be scheduled in the Tri-Counties where the case is extremely serious (i.e. murder, attempted murder, any sexual assault case, aggravated assault, driving cases causing death, etc.) or where the case will take three (3) or more days trial time.  Where the above-noted parameters cannot be met (i.e. extremely serious case or lengthy trial matter), the permission of the Local Administrative Justice must be obtained before a resolution JPT will be scheduled.  

#2.         Defence Counsel must have written instructions from their Client to plead guilty to the charge or charges that were discussed at the Crown pre-trial;

#3.         An Agreed Statement of Facts; Updated Criminal Record; Victim Impact Statements; and all other sentencing exhibits, where available, must be provided to the resolution pre-trial judge three (3) days in advance of the resolution pre-trial along with any relevant sentencing caselaw.  The Agreed Statement of Facts must be signed by the Accused.  The Crown must also sign the Agreed Statement of Facts and provide an acknowledgement that they have reviewed the Agreed Statement of Facts with the Victim and/or their family members where the victims are deceased, mentally incompetent or very young children.  This advanced documentation, especially the updated criminal record and victim impact statements, are mandatory requirements and failure to provide these documents will result in the resolution judicial pre-trial being cancelled.

#4.         Crown & Defence must set out, in writing, their sentencing positions and/or joint sentencing recommendations as part of the pre-trial materials. 

Read the full list of Judicial Criminal Pre-Trial Best Practices on the Ontario Court of Justice website at the following link: https://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/notices/judicial-criminal-pre-trial-best-practices/