Duty counsel in Canada are government-funded legal aid lawyers. They can provide free legal advice and assistance to those without a lawyer. You can call a 24-hour toll-free phone line for advice right after an arrest. There are also lawyers stationed at courthouses to help on a walk-in basis.
What Duty Counsel Can Help With
Ontario duty counsel can help you with some of the initial steps of the whole process without delving too deeply into the technicalities. They offer:
| Immediate advice | Give free legal guidance right after an arrest or detention via free phone lines |
|---|---|
| Assistance at first appearance | Helping during the initial court appearance or arraignment |
| Handling of bail hearings | Representation at a bail hearing in many straightforward cases is available |
What Duty Counsel Cannot Do
Although that initial assistance is helpful, it’s often not enough to secure a favourable outcome of an impaired driving charge. Duty counsel cannot provide you with long-term, thorough defence. They cannot:
| Represent you at trial | They do not act as your dedicated defence attorney for a contested DUI trial or lengthy evidentiary hearings |
|---|---|
| Provide continuous representation | You may not get the same duty counsel lawyer at subsequent court dates |
| Perform deep case reconstruction | They lack the time and resources to independently investigate police flaws, hire expert witnesses, or challenge breathalyzer evidence |
DUI Duty Counsel
A DUI charge carries mandatory minimum penalties starting on a first offence as per Section 320.19 of the Criminal Code. Many cases also depend on a single piece of technical evidence like the breath or blood reading. They would need time to thoroughly examine the reading and the calibration log, or challenge how the sample was taken, and that time is not something duty counsel can provide.
If you need a defence built for your specific case, talk to a Toronto DUI lawyer as soon as you can. The earlier a lawyer looks at your file, the more options you have.