Re-Blog #6: Sleepless Nights

Originally Posted: Mar. 8, 2013 - http://batchelorstammlaw.com/2013/03/sleepless-nights/

Sleepless Nights: Limitation periods for crime

 

“There’s no statute of limitation on murder!”

  You’ve probably heard it on American TV. The hardboiled cop spits it in the face of the villain when he knows who did it, but can’t prove anything. It means that even if the murder happened 80 years ago the murder can still be brought trial. But you didn’t commit a murder on TV in the States, so why do you care?

 You care because unlike murder some crimes do have a ‘statute of limitations’. Meaning that if a certain period of time goes by (ie. 6 months, or a year) it’s too late and the case can never be brought to trial. In essence whoever did the crime has gotten away with it. As you can see there are two sides to this. On the one hand if you’re still hoping they will get the guy who stole your bike five years ago you
’re probably out of luck. On the other hand if you’re up at night worrying about doing time for the dime-bag of weed you smoked in the sixth grade you can probably sleep easy.

 So how do long do you have to wait before your youthful, or maybe not so youthful, indiscretions no longer carry the risk of time behind bars? That depends on the crime and how the prosecutor decides to proceed.   There are literally thousands of offences in hundreds of different Acts, and each Act can have its own limitation period. So in theory if you committed an offence under the Seed Potato Act you need to look up the legislation and see what it says about limitation periods. That’s what they teach you in law school - to read the laws – and now you know one of the great secrets. Okay, but you’re not a lawyer and you don’t want to spend all day reading laws.

Good news, because even though there are thousands of offences in hundreds of Acts, people mainly commit offences under one of three Acts: the Criminal Code of Canada, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and the Motor Vehicles Act. Moreover the vast majority of those hundreds of other Acts don’t set their own limitation periods, but instead rely on default provisions.

You’re saying get to the point, how long do I have to wait before the crime will forever go unpunished. I’ll get there, I promise, but just hold on, one more minute. I’m telling you all this background because I want you to know that even though I’m saying there is normally a limitation period of _____months, if you get charged with something unusual or under some little known Act, it might be different. So even though your ____months is up, don’t go running through the streets telling everyone how awesome it was to break the law. If you must do to that go check with a lawyer first, or if you can’t afford that, at the very least Google the law you’re charged under and see if it has a different limitation period.

Okay, warnings complete, here is the magic.

Indictable Offences No limitation period
  
Motor Vehicle Act Offences 12 months  

Summary Offences 6 months

What does that mean? Indictable Offences are the really bad ones (murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery) and these have no time limit. Just like on American TV they can get you for murder 30 years later.  

Summary Offences are the less serious offences (nudity, public disturbance, etc…) Those need to be started by either a ticket (if it’s the kind of offence you can get a ticket for) or a sworn information within 6 months of the crime.  

 Hybrid Offences aren’t listed because they can go both ways. Many crimes can be very serious or not so serious depending on the facts. For those offences the prosecution decides whether to treat it like an indictable offence or to treat it like a summary offence. A good example is theft which can range from shoplifting to a casino heist.  

I know what you’re thinking, that means if the prosecution missed a deadline they could just amp up what would have been a summary offence to an indictable offence and they are off to the races. Although that may be true, in practice it very rarely happens. Prosecuting indictable offences is difficult and time consuming. There is no appetite to proceed by indictment on your shoplifting beef, even if it’s too late to proceed summarily. In short, if the crime was minor and six months has passed you are probably in the clear.  

Motor Vehicle Offences are special, because somebody put an extended limitation period of 12 months in the Act. This is why you really need to double check the Act you are charged under. A Motor Vehicle Act Offence must either be ticketed or started by sworn information within six months.  

That’s it: you laughed, you cried, you regretted opening your browser, but what should you take away from this?   

1) Stop worrying about those petty crimes you committed in grade school, and accept the fact that the 9^th grade bike thief will probably never pay for this crimes;

  2) If you did something dumb, and it’s been more than 6 months (12 if you were driving at the time), you’re probably off the hook, but maybe keep it to yourself anyways;  

3) If you did something really bad you are never getting off the hook and you’ll have to either own up to it or take it to your grave;  

4) If the something dumb caught up to you and you got a ticket or a criminal charge for something you did more than six months ago (twelve if you were driving at the time) you may have a limitation period defence and you should talk to a lawyer.    

Article authored by:   Cody Walker, Law Student, CD, AA – about the author