Caramanna Friedberg LLP

Law Firm Overview

Caramanna, Friedberg, LLP is a criminal defense firm located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Practice areas include drug and weapons offenses, property crimes, bail reviews and hearings, assault, fraud, DUI and traffic offenses, immigration prosecutions, internet related charges, murder/culpable homicide, robbery and theft, professional disciplinary proceedings, and other types of offenses.

Salvatore Caramanna, LL.B. and Matthew A. Friedberg, LL.B. have 40 combined years of legal experience. Together with the firm’s other lawyers, they provide skillful representation from the earliest stages of the criminal process through to trial, with an emphasis on client service, professionalism, and zealous advocacy.

Each client receives special attention, and every available resource is utilized in order to seek positive results. With a combination of knowledge, experience, and dedication, the firm offers a team approach and commitment in working to resolve clients’ criminal cases.

Areas of Law

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Additional Areas of Law: Assault with a Weapon; Bail Hearing; Pardon; Possession; Production; Professional Disciplinary Proceeding; Quasi-Criminal Prosecution; Sexual Assault; Speeding; Tax Prosecution; Trafficking; Youth Criminal Justice Act; Bail Review; Break & Enter; Charter Application; Coroner's Inquest; Domestic Assault; Environmental Prosecution; Importing; Impaired Driving / Over 80; Immigration Prosecution; Internet Related Charge; Fingerprint Destruction; Corporate Fraud; Ponzi Scheme; Computer-Related Forgery; Copyright Offense.

Areas of Law Description

Our practice includes:

- All Weapons Offenses

In Canada, there are many offences dealing with the Possession of weapons. It is generally illegal, for example, to carry a weapon in a concealed fashion in a public place. It is also illegal to carry a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Whether a particular item at a specific time constitutes a 'weapon' however, is a very fact specific inquiry. Some items, like firearms, are almost always going to constitute a weapon in virtually any circumstance. Other items however, can constitute weapons in the particular circumstances in which they are used. Knives, baseball bats, rocks, automobiles and even snowballs have all been found to be weapons in certain circumstances. Generally, whether something constitutes a weapon depends on whether it was designed to be, or is being used as, a weapon in a particular fact scenario. It is a serious offence to be found possessing a weapon without a legal justification.

- Assault with a Weapon

An assault is, generally speaking, the application of force, or the threat of force, against another individual without their consent and without legal justification or excuse. 'Begging' while carrying a weapon is also considered an assault. The crime of Assault with a Weapon is the application, or threatened application, of force against another person where a weapon is used as a tool in respect of the force. Therefore, knowingly waving a knife in the direction of a person, pointing a firearm, or striking another individual with an object can all constitute an Assault with a Weapon.

- Bail Hearings

When an individual is arrested, they are presumptively to be released by the police back into the community while their case works its way through the Court system. However, the law recognizes that in some situations, the safety of the public, and the proper functioning of the Court system, requires that a person remain in custody until their day in Court. In those scenarios where the police do not release an individual post-arrest, all persons have the right to be brought to Court for a bail hearing. At a bail hearing, the accused person will have the opportunity to make their case for release, and a judge or justice of the peace will have the option of releasing that person on bail, allowing them to live in the community (usually under certain restrictions) until their case is heard in Court.

Most bail hearings include the Crown informing the Court of the allegations made by the police, and can include an accused person, or an accused person's potential sureties, giving evidence on the witness stand in order to assist the Court in making a decision. In Canada, there is a constitutional right for every person to be released on bail pending trial unless there is just cause to hold them in custody. The instances where an individual will be held without bail are narrow and pre-trial detention is supposed to be unusual. If however, a Court finds an individual remains a threat to the public or a flight risk, the Court could order that person held in custody until trial.

- Bail Reviews

When a person is denied bail at their bail hearing, the general rule is that he or she must remain in jail until their case is dealt with according to law in the Courts. However, there is a process by which a detained individual can seek a review of the decision to detain them pending trial. This process is called a Bail Review. A Bail Review is not simply a 'second kick at the can' as it were. When an individual seeks redress by way of a Bail Review, they must show either that a) since the bail hearing, the circumstances of the case have changed materially such that, if the bail hearing judge were dealing with the case today, the decision made would have been different or b) the bail hearing judge made an error in law.

If a judge finds a change in circumstances or an error in law, he or she then will consider the issue of bail afresh, as if the hearing were occurring in the original bail court. At that stage, the Bail Review Judge can confirm the prior order or release the accused on conditions. Bail Reviews are also available to the Crown, who can seek the detention of an accused person who was released at his or her bail hearing. The same rules relating to the grounds require apply to the Crown.

- Break and Enter

Break and Enter charges laid by the police are usually in relation to a dwelling house i.e. a place where people live or other structure or place where people function. For example, a commercial place of business. However, there are broader exceptions to this general principle and one should review subsection (2) of the legislation for a full list of places.

The offence of Break and Enter envisions the Accused breaking and entering into a place with the intention of committing an indictable offence. Most commonly, Break and Enters are committed by people attempting to steal property and thereby committing the indictable offence of theft while Breaking and Entering. If an Accused does not have the intention to commit an indictable offence, but unlawfully enters a premise, while the Accused may not be guilty of Break and Enter, he may be committing other offences in the Criminal Code. Contrary to what it sounds, Break an Enter does not require any damage to property entered. All that is required is any entrance into the property by even a part of one's body. Reference should be made to section 350 of the Criminal Code for more details.

- Charter Applications

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains many rights all people in Canada have. The Charter protects all people from unlawful state intrusions into our lives. Sometimes the state violates the rights of Accused people during the course of an investigation and sometimes afterwards. In the context of criminal law, most often these state intrusions are committed by the police. When state conduct violates the rights of an Accused, an Accused can apply to the Court to redress any violation of their rights by the state during the course of a trial. Often, Charter applications are brought by Accused to exclude evidence that was obtained by the police in violation of certain rights. Charter litigation has become very complicated. Our firm has considerable experience in complicated and creative Charter litigation.

- Domestic Assault

There is no separate offence of Domestic Assault in the Criminal Code. However, given the sensitive nature of assaults committed within personal relationships, many courthouses in the GTA have created specialized courtrooms that deal exclusively with domestic assault cases. These Courts often have their own specialized team of Prosecutors that work in these courtrooms. To be classified as a domestic assault, the Accused and Complainant need not be married. The relationship can be any personal relationship between two people whether they are dating, living together, common law, married and between a man and a woman or same sex couples.

- Professional Disciplinary Proceedings

As a part of their requirement to practice their profession, many professionals must belong to a licensing body. Sometimes a complaint is made to a licensing body against a professional. In certain circumstances, these licensing bodies have the ability to hold disciplinary proceedings against the professional in question. We offer defense services to professionals in need of help in defending themselves in such proceedings.

- Young Offenders

The Young Offenders Act ( YOA ) was an act of the Parliament of Canada, granted Royal Assent in 1984, which regulated the criminal prosecution of Canadian youths. [1] The act was repealed in 2003 with the passing of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The act established the national age of criminal responsibility at 12 years old, and said that youths can only be prosecuted if they break a law of the Criminal Code (previously, youths could be prosecuted or punished solely on the grounds that it was in the youth's "best interests").

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More Information on Caramanna Friedberg LLP

Criminal Defense
Murder
Fraud
Robbery
Drug Offense
Sexual Assault
Assault with a Weapon
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