However, not every arrest leads to a conviction. In some cases, criminal charges can go all the way through to the trial, however, during the trial, their charges are dropped and they are acquitted. In other cases, the case doesn’t make it to the trial at all and charges are dropped. But what exactly do dropped charges and dismissed cases mean and how do they affect your criminal record?    

Dropped Charges

A charge can be dropped at any time before the trial by either a prosecutor or an arresting officer. At this point, the case doesn’t move forward into a trial, this would be considered having a charge dropped, which can happen for a few different reasons: 

Lack of Evidence: Charges can be dropped if the prosecutor decides that there isn’t sufficient evidence to follow through with filing the charge. Or, new evidence emerges which goes against the case against the defendant.  

Improper Procedure: Throughout the entire arresting process, including booking, interrogating, and hearings, police and prosecutors must obey the criminal procedures. If at any time during these processes the defendant’s rights aren’t respected, the case could be dropped or the potential sentence can be reduced. 

Insufficient Resources: At times prosecutors have many, many cases to deal with and as a result, they may have to allocate time and resources to more pressing cases. In these situations, they will drop charges for more minor cases.

Cooperation: If the defendant is working with the authorities to help solve other crimes, their sentence could be reduced or their charge could be dropped entirely.

Dismissed Charges

Dismissed charges are similar to dropped charges in that the case does not proceed to a trial. The difference between the two is that prosecutors and arresting officers have the power to drop charges at any time before trial while judges have the power to dismiss them during.

Cases are dismissed when the judge has decided not to allow the case to proceed. Many of the reasons that cases are dropped are similar to the reasons cases are dismissed, such as:

Lack of Probable Cause: In cases involving traffic laws, if the officer stopped you without having probable cause and you happened to be violating a traffic law, your charge could be dismissed as the officer had no reason to suspect you. 

Searching Without a Warrant: When conducting a search on a vehicle or home, police must have a valid search warrant. If a defendant’s vehicle or home was searched by an officer without a warrant, any evidence that was found is invalid and they have no case against you.

Lack of Evidence: If the police do not have sufficient evidence or have lost evidence that was crucial to the case the charge could be dismissed. 

Dropped & Dismissed Charge in Regard to Your Criminal Record

With both dropped and dismissed charges, even though there is no conviction, all of the other documentation surrounding the case will still exist on your record, such as evidence of arrest, fingerprints and charges filed. When you perform a criminal record check for renting an apartment or looking for a job, the documentation from the dropped or dismissed charges will still arise which can cause the employer or landlord to not hire you or rent to you. 

If you have a dropped or dismissed charge that is stopping you from renting property or being hired, you will need to obtain a pardon. Pardons will remove all traces of past convictions so you can move on with your life.  

If you have had a drop or dismissed case in the past and it is affecting your day to day life; a pardon is the best solution. To find out if you are eligible for a pardon Contact Pardon Canada at 1 (800) 543-2137, we will provide professional assistance and expert advice.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Dropped and Dismissed Charges appeared first on Federal Pardons and Waivers.

Naturally, the world of pardons Canada has its fair share of head-scratching words. This means that if you ever find yourself looking to acquire a pardons or US Entry Waiver, you’ll need to brush up on your legal terms. 

The process of getting a Canadian pardon is long and complex, which makes it easy for someone to get confused at any point. But not to worry. We are here to help ensure that the abundance of legal terms thrown at you don’t make your head spin out of control. There are many legal terms out there that are relevant to the pardons process, but today we are going to focus on two of them: Dropped charges and dismissed charges.

But first, a refresher on our services

If you are landing on this site for the first time, then that could potentially mean that you are new to the world of record suspensions. So before we jump into dropped and dismissed charges, let’s take a quick look at our core services:

Pardons Canada

This is also known as a record suspension, and it allows for the removal of a Canadian’s criminal record from public view. That means if someone runs a criminal background check on you, they will not find any past convictions. This obviously is a tremendous benefit for people with past convictions trying to apply for jobs or get custody of their children.

US Entry Waiver

US Entry Waiver is essential for any Canadian with a criminal record who plans on traveling to the US. Once you get to the border, you can be denied entry if border agents see convictions on your record (particularly pot possession convictions). An Entry Waiver allows you to travel to the US because it is a document that informs border agents you have been properly vetted and that you don’t pose a threat to public safety.

Dropped Charges

During a criminal proceeding, charges against an individual are filed. This happens after a person is arrested and a prosecutor believes there is enough information to indict. However, the prosecutor can get to a point where they don’t think they have sufficient evidence to persuade a judge and/or jury that a person is guilty of the original charges. Additionally, it’s possible that the charges are simply not filed.

If either of these events occur, the prosecutor can decide not to move forward with a case and just drop the charges. 

Dismissed Charges

The path towards dismissed charges is very similar to the path to dropped charges. Additionally, this outcome is similar to having charges dropped. When a case is dismissed, this means that a judge decided not to allow the case to proceed after charges are filed. A judge would make this decision in the event that they decided there was not enough evidence to proceed with a fair trial.

How Does This Impact You?

This is an important question, because if dismissed charged and dropped charges had no bearing on the record suspension process, then we simply would not be talking about it. You may be a bit confused at this point because you’re thinking, “Well, hang on, if my charge was dropped or dismissed, then I have nothing to worry about.”

The problem is that there are records of the charges and everything that goes with that (reports filed, fingerprinting, etc.). These are the things that can come back to haunt you later in life. A pardons Canada or US Entry Waiver ensures that you don’t have to deal with any inconvenient obstacles.

Getting a Pardon for Dropped or Dismissed Charges

If you have ever been arrested and charged with a crime, but that charge was either dismissed or dropped, you can apply for a pardon. This will remove any information about the charge from your record.

However, just because you have had a charge dropped or dismissed, this does not mean you can immediately apply for a pardon. Depending on the outcome of a charge, your eligibility for a pardon will change. This means that you will have to wait a certain amount of time before you can submit a pardon application.

Luckily, for both dropped charges and dismissed charges, an individual will only have to wait 5 months before they can apply. This starts on the date that charges were either dropped or dismissed.  

There really is so much to this process. That is why we always make ourselves available to our clients to ensure that they are sufficiently informed about everything related to pardons Canada. If you have questions for us to help clarify things for you or you wish to work on your pardons Canada application, then we encourage you to contact us today.

The post What are Dropped and Dismissed Charges? appeared first on Federal Pardons and Waivers.