1. Understand what should be in your disclosure

Disclosure is the information that the police and the Crown have about your case. Disclosure can include:

• a police summary of the case, also called a synopsis
• a Crown screening form
• police officer’s notes
• witness statements
• surveillance video and photos
• financial documents
• forensic reports

The Crown must give you a copy of everything they have that is relevant to your case, unless the information is privileged. “Privileged” means the information is confidential and cannot be shared or used at trial. For example, communication between a lawyer and their client or between a doctor and patient is privileged.

Crown Screening Form

The Crown Screening form is an important part of your disclosure. It is, also called the Charge Screening form. This form tells you how the Crown plans to deal with your charges. For example, if you have been charged with a hybrid offence, the form will tell you whether the Crown will be proceeding summarily or by indictment.

Look at this chart to learn more about summary, indictable, and hybrid offences.

The form will also tell you:

• what kind of sentence the Crown will ask for
• if you can plead guilty early to have some of your charges dropped
• if you have been approved for diversion

This information will help you decide how you want to deal with your charges.