Obtaining legal assistance for your company can be a very costly proposition, especially for cash-strapped small businesses that are hard pressed to come up with the money to pay a lawyer.
If this is your situation, it’s a good idea to let your lawyer know right off the bat, and ask him for advice on how to handle your legal issues for the lowest possible cost.
For routine clerical work such as drafting contract and writing simple letters, it is often best to have a junior associate or paralegal handle your case, rather than a senior lawyer. You might also want to try revising simple documents yourself (depending on your level of experience), rather than making repeat visits to your lawyer’s office.
If your business requires representation in court, you might want to try and negotiate a contingency fee, usually a percentage of gains (i.e. from a lawsuit), which would be paid upon successful completion of your case. This type of deal isn’t always possible for very difficult or specialized court battles, and can represent a significant premium over normal legal fees. It does take away a lot of your risk, however, and reduces up-front costs, while providing additional incentive for an attorney to work hard on your case.
Civil Forfeiture and the Standard of Proof
Unlike criminal proceedings, where an accused person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty and only punished once their guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, civil forfeiture proceedings operate on the balance of probabilities, meaning that the state must merely demonstrate that an individual has probably done something illegal in order to obtain forfeiture of their property.
Democratic Rights: A Broad Charter Guarantee
Democratic Rights, and specifically the right to vote in provincial and federal elections, enjoy broad constitutional protection in Canada, pursuant to Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This section states that “Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of the members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.”
The Right to Counsel in Canada
Section 10(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms preserves the right of a detained individual to contact counsel immediately upon arrest or detention, and simultaneously imposes a duty upon police to immediately inform individuals that they have this right.
