Guides / BC criminal process

Who decides if I will be charged in BC, and can I change their mind?

In BC, Crown counsel decides whether you are charged, not the police. Police send a Report to Crown Counsel, a prosecutor reads it, and a charge goes ahead only if that prosecutor is satisfied on two tests.

Most people assume an arrest means a charge. It does not. Police arrest you, investigate, and decide whether they believe a crime was committed. If they do, they put their evidence into a Report to Crown Counsel, called an RCC, and send it to a Crown office. Then it waits for a prosecutor.

BC works differently from most provinces here. Crown counsel approves charges before they are laid in almost every case. That puts a second set of eyes between the police theory and your name on an Information, and it gives you an opening that people in other provinces do not have.

What happens between an arrest and a charge?

You may be released the same night with paperwork and conditions, or held for a bail hearing. A release document with a court date on it feels like the case has started. Until Crown counsel approves a charge, there is nothing to plead to: only an investigation with your name on it. Follow the release conditions to the letter anyway. A breach of a condition can put a new charge on top of the old file.

Police sometimes ask a prosecutor for advice before the report is finished. That conversation shapes the file, and you never hear it. By the time the RCC arrives, the police theory is already written down, and it is the only version the Crown has.

Then comes the wait. The RCC lands at a Crown office, a prosecutor is assigned, and the file joins a queue. A simple file can clear in a few weeks. A file waiting on a phone download, forensic work or a second round of police follow-up can take months. The wait is miserable. It is also the only stage where nobody has made a decision yet.

What two tests does Crown counsel apply?

The BC Prosecution Service applies a two-part test in most cases. First, is there a substantial likelihood of conviction on the evidence in the RCC? Second, if there is, does the public interest require a prosecution? Both answers have to be yes.

In plain talk: could the Crown realistically win, and is this worth putting through a courtroom. “Substantial likelihood” is a higher bar than “a witness says it happened.” The prosecutor is asking how the case will look after the defence has picked at it, which is the same question a judge asks later under the reasonable doubt standard.

I will not pretend the first test screens out much. Police arrest on reasonable grounds, and most files that reach a prosecutor are approved. The second test does more work on smaller files. Prosecutors weigh how serious the harm was, whether a weapon was involved, and whether this person has been before the court. Some files go to an alternative measures program instead of a courtroom. A first-time shoplifter and a repeat offender with a knife do not travel the same road.

Can a lawyer change the Crown's mind before you are charged?

Sometimes. Picture a shoving match outside a Government Street bar at closing time: two groups, each saying the other swung first, no video, and a bouncer who saw the end of it. On that RCC the likelihood of conviction is thin, and a short letter that names the conflict can end the file before it starts. Before charge approval, the prosecutor has only the police version. A lawyer can write to the Crown office with your side and point to the holes: a complainant whose account shifted between two statements, video that does not show what the officer says it shows, a stop that looks like a Charter breach. Sometimes that letter ends the file. Sometimes it narrows a charge, or moves the file toward alternative measures.

The letter has a cost, and I weigh it every time. A submission can show the Crown your defence before disclosure is in. Crown counsel is also under no duty to listen, and a charge may be approved anyway. So I decide file by file whether writing helps or whether silence serves you better. No lawyer should give you a blanket answer.

If you are charged, the next stop is a first appearance in provincial court. Approval of a charge is not proof of anything. It means a prosecutor thinks the case is worth the Crown's time. The defence still gets its chance to show otherwise.

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