Guides / BC criminal process
How long does a criminal case take in BC?
A contested criminal case in BC provincial court commonly takes between six and eighteen months from first appearance to verdict, and a guilty plea can finish in a few weeks. A case that goes to Supreme Court, with a preliminary inquiry or a jury, often runs two years or longer.
Those are ranges, and nobody honest can promise you one. A shoplifting charge with clear store video and a client who wants it finished can resolve by the third appearance. A sexual assault trial with a complainant, a Charter application and a forensic report can take two years. Your number depends on the charge, the court registry, and the choices you make along the way.
Why does a criminal case take so long?
Because every step needs a courtroom, a Crown, a judge and your lawyer free on the same day, and the steps run in order. You attend your first appearance, where counsel is put on the file and the charge is read. Then comes disclosure: police notes, witness statements, video, lab reports. It often arrives in pieces, and I cannot give you real advice on a case until I have read all of it. Next are resolution discussions with the Crown. Only then does a trial date get set, and in provincial court those dates are commonly booked many months ahead.
Add the things nobody controls. A witness falls ill. An officer is on leave. A lab report arrives late. A trial booked for one day needs two, and the second day lands four months later. Each gap looks short on a calendar. It feels long when you are the one waiting.
Supreme Court adds steps. For the most serious charges there may be a preliminary inquiry, a hearing where the judge decides whether the Crown has enough evidence to proceed. After that come new appearances in Supreme Court, and trial dates there can sit a year or more away. Pre-trial applications each need their own hearing time too. A Charter challenge to a search, or a fight over whether a statement can be used, can add months before the trial starts.
Is there a time limit on how long the Crown can take?
Yes. The Supreme Court of Canada set it in R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27. In provincial court the presumptive ceiling is 18 months from the day you are charged to the actual or expected end of the trial. In Supreme Court, or in provincial court after a preliminary inquiry, it is 30 months. Sentencing is not counted. Once a case goes past the ceiling, the delay is presumed unreasonable and the Crown has to justify it. If it cannot, the charge is stayed, and the case ends.
I will be straight about the limits. A Jordan stay is rare. The clock stops for delay the defence causes: an adjournment I ask for, or an earlier date the court offered that we turned down. Time lost to a truly exceptional event, or to a case of real complexity, also comes off the count. Courts expect the defence to push for dates, not sit quiet and complain later. A client who wants a stay has to want a fast trial first.
Do not build your case around a Jordan application. Lawyers who treat delay as a lottery ticket lose the cases where the Crown was ready and the defence asked for the adjournment. If delay might matter on your file, tell me at the start, and I will track the dates from the day you were charged.
Can I make it go faster, and should I want to?
Sometimes you can, and sometimes you should not. Speed helps when your release conditions are costing you work, when the defence is clean and an early trial date is open, or when you need it over. Speed hurts when disclosure is incomplete. A trial on half a file is a trial on the Crown's half. If a body-camera video, an officer's notes or a phone extraction has not arrived, rushing to trial hands over the best part of your position.
If you are out on bail conditions, those conditions run until the case ends, so a long case is a long stretch of curfews and no-contact terms. Months of clean compliance can help you at sentencing, but they do not make the wait easier.
A guilty plea is the fastest road. Most pleas come after disclosure has been reviewed and the Crown has made an offer. Sentencing can happen the same day, or it can be put over for a pre-sentence report, which adds weeks or months.
Ask me early which pace suits your file. Fast and thorough pull in opposite directions, and I would rather tell you which one your case needs than let the calendar decide for both of us.
Here is what I do in the first meeting with every new client. I write down one date: the day you were charged. From that date we count.
Count the days from the day you were charged.
This is general information, not legal advice, and every case turns on its own facts. If you are facing a criminal charge in BC and want advice on your situation, the first conversation is free and confidential.
Common questions
Does the 18-month limit include sentencing?
No. The Jordan ceiling runs from the day you are charged to the actual or expected end of the trial, meaning the end of evidence and argument. Sentencing comes after and is not counted.
Does the clock stop if my lawyer asks for an adjournment?
Yes. Delay caused by the defence is taken off the count, so an adjournment the defence requests, or an earlier date it turns down, does not help a delay application.
How long does a guilty plea take in BC?
It can take a few weeks if the facts are simple and the Crown makes an early offer. Most take longer, because the file has to be reviewed first and sentencing can be put over for a pre-sentence report.
Will I be in custody until my case ends?
Many people wait for trial on release, with conditions. Whether you are released depends on the charge, your record and the plan you put forward. The bail guide explains how the hearing works.