Criminal Defence Lawyers in North York, Ontario

Kazandji Law has an office in North York, at 70 Forest Manor Road, Unit 4B. North York does not have a criminal courthouse. Both sentences are true, and on the day you are charged the second one matters more. Adult criminal cases from North York are heard at the Ontario Court of Justice at 10 Armoury Street in downtown Toronto. If you were held for a bail hearing, that hearing almost certainly ran out of a different building on Finch Avenue West. This page is built around one question that rarely gets answered plainly: at each step of a North York case, who decides, and what are they allowed to decide? Once you can name the decision maker, most of the confusion goes away.

Everything below was checked against the source that publishes it on the day this page was written. Court pages change, and they change without notice. Where a source is inconsistent or reads as out of date, we say so rather than tidy it up.

A North York office, and a criminal courthouse that is not in North York

Our North York office is at 70 Forest Manor Road, Unit 4B, North York, Ontario M2J 0A9. The phone number is 647-588-3234. We also have offices in Toronto at 180 John Street, Unit 320, in Thornhill at 7191 Yonge Street, Suite 310, and in Oakville at 466 Speers Road. Thornhill is on 647-697-5975 and Oakville is on 647-696-1468. All of them are listed on our contact page.

Here is the honest version of what a local address does for you. It is somewhere to sit down with a lawyer without driving downtown. It is somewhere to sign a retainer, hand over documents, go through disclosure page by page, and prepare a surety before a bail hearing. Those are real, practical things, and doing them close to home is easier than doing them in a tower on University Avenue after an hour in traffic.

Here is what it does not do. It does not move your courthouse. It does not get you an earlier date. It does not change which judge or which justice of the peace hears you, and it does not change which Crown office holds your file. Anyone who suggests a local address changes the outcome of a criminal case is selling something. The work that changes outcomes is disclosure review, bail planning, Charter argument, negotiation with the Crown and trial preparation. None of that is geographic. Our wider Toronto criminal defence practice covers the same ground for cases from across the city.

So read this page as a map of authority rather than a tour of buildings. Police decide which division holds your file. A justice of the peace decides whether you go home. The Chief Justice sets the rules that shape how fast that happens. The Crown decides how to proceed, which in turn decides what level of court you end up in. The Court's own scheduling practice decides the day you first appear. The City runs the ticket courts. We decide none of it. What we decide is how well prepared you are at the moment each of those people makes their decision, and that is not a small thing.

The 2023 amalgamation: six criminal courthouses folded into one building

For decades a criminal charge in Toronto went to whichever of several scattered courthouses covered the area you were arrested in. That ended. The Ontario Court of Justice describes the new Toronto courthouse as a 17 storey building at 10 Armoury Street that amalgamated six Ontario Court of Justice criminal courthouse locations from across the city of Toronto. In the Court's words it improves access to justice for adult Torontonians by providing court services in one location, including specialized courts and their support services.

One of the six that closed was the criminal court on Finch Avenue West that North York residents used for years. That is why so much older advice still sends people north for a trial date. It is out of date. The provincial list of Toronto court locations no longer carries any listing for 1000 Finch Avenue West. If a website is still directing North York clients there, that site has not been updated since 2023.

The address you want is Ontario Court of Justice, Toronto, 10 Armoury Street, Toronto, Ontario M7A 0B9. The courthouse can be reached at 416-212-2701 or by email at 10Armoury.OCJ.courts@ontario.ca. The provincial Crown Attorney's office for Toronto publishes a main line at 416-212-2707. Federal drug and regulatory prosecutions run through the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, reachable at 416-506-0539. Toronto duty counsel at the Ontario Court of Justice can be reached at 416-646-1286, with published options for youth duty counsel, for counsel assisting people appearing that day or the next, and for people appearing two or more days away. Legal Aid Ontario's central number is 1-800-668-8258.

There is a small piece of evidence that the move really happened, sitting in plain sight on the Court's own page. The virtual counsel sign up sheet for courtroom 201 at 10 Armoury Street is still labelled as the sheet formerly used for 2201 Finch, courtroom 202. The paperwork followed the cases downtown, and it kept its old name on the way. If your file feels like it has been picked up and carried across the city, that is because it has.

Bail did not move: the Regional Bail Centre at 2201 Finch Avenue West

This is the part that surprises people. The criminal trial courts consolidated downtown, but bail did not go with them. The Ontario Court of Justice operates a Regional Bail Centre for Toronto at 2201 Finch Ave. West, Toronto, Ontario M9M 2Y9.

Be careful with the geography here, because it is easy to overstate. 2201 Finch Avenue West carries an M9M postal code and sits in the northwest of the city. The City of Toronto does not publish boundaries for the former municipalities, so nobody can honestly tell you the bail centre is in North York. What is true, and useful, is that it is on Finch Avenue West, the same Finch Avenue that runs right across North York, and that it is the building where a North York arrest turns into a release decision.

The practical details come from the provincial court location listing. Court offices there run Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Counter service is narrower, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and again from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The criminal telephone line is 416-314-3962. The Crown Attorney's office at that location is 416-314-3936, with an email address at TRBCCrown@ontario.ca. The Victim and Witness Assistance Program there is 416-314-3944. French language services are available at that location both over the phone and at the counter.

Bail duty counsel for the centre can be reached at DC-TRBC@lao.on.ca, or by phone at 416-646-1286, pressing 1 for English or 2 for French and then 2 for bail duty counsel. Legal Aid Ontario notes that mail sent to the older 2201 Finch duty counsel address is forwarded to the current one, which is a quiet sign of how recent all this rearranging is.

So a North York case genuinely splits across the city. A release decision in the north end, then every appearance after that downtown. Families discover this the hard way, usually by arriving at the wrong building. If you are preparing for that first hearing, our page on bail hearings in Toronto goes through what a plan of release actually has to contain before anyone will approve it.

Weekends, holidays and the bail practice direction in force since 1 June 2026

Arrests do not respect the calendar. Weekend and statutory holiday bail in Ontario runs through what the system calls WASH court, and for the Toronto region those matters run through the same Regional Bail Centre.

Since 1 June 2026 the Ontario Court of Justice has operated under a Practice Direction Regarding Bail Hearings, issued under Rule 5.1 of the Criminal Rules by Chief Justice Sharon Nicklas. It is short, it is public, and it changes what you are entitled to expect. Four parts of it matter most to someone sitting in a cell.

• All reasonable steps should be taken to accommodate bail hearings, whether or not on consent, on the same day the parties are ready to proceed. The direction states that this principle applies to weekday bail courts and to Weekend and Statutory Holiday bail courts alike.
• All proposed consent releases put before the court shall be accommodated the same day.
• The Court expects routine contested bail hearings to be completed in no longer than 30 minutes, subject to the discretion of the presiding judicial officer.
• The Court expects consent releases to be completed in no longer than 15 minutes, again subject to that discretion.

Read those together and the message is blunt. Time is short and preparation is everything. A contested hearing meant to finish inside half an hour is not the place to start assembling a plan from scratch. The Crown is expected to work from a focused record, which in many cases will be the criminal record if there is one, the synopsis or summary of allegations, and copies of any earlier release orders. At the start of the hearing both sides are expected to state the onus, the Crown position on detention, which grounds are genuinely in issue and why, the proposed form of release, and the defence plan of release.

On attendance, the Court's separate direction on mode of appearance says that at first appearances following arrest accused persons will appear by video unless otherwise directed by the Court, and that sureties may appear in person or by video. The same direction records that the Court may still direct an accused be brought in person where the video resources are not available at a location. So expect video, prepare for either, and do not assume anyone is driving you anywhere. For the general law underneath all of this, see our explainer on bail and bail hearings in Canada.

Sureties, and the rule that the court must be satisfied nothing lighter will do

A surety is a person who promises the court they will supervise you and who pledges money if you breach. Families treat finding one as the whole task. The practice direction reframes that.

Release with a surety is only required where the court is satisfied that a surety release is the least onerous form of release possible in the circumstances, regardless of onus. That last phrase carries real weight. Even where the burden sits on the accused to show why release is justified, the court still has to be satisfied nothing lighter would do. All parties are expected to consider and propose alternatives to a surety release where that is appropriate. A great many people are asked for a surety they do not need, and nobody argues the point.

Where a surety is proposed, defence counsel should prepare the surety declaration, share it with the Crown, and file it with the court in advance of the hearing. The Court expects declarations to be completed, signed and sworn before filing. Where a declaration has been filed, the expectation is that examination in chief and cross examination of the surety are not required. If the Crown does want to cross examine, it has to identify the issues, the purpose of the cross examination as it relates to the live issues, and a time estimate, and the judicial officer is expected to keep it focused rather than let it run.

Two practical points follow for anyone acting as a surety. First, where a surety's attendance is required, the surety may attend by audio and video conference unless the presiding judicial officer directs that they attend in person. Nobody should be booking a day off on the assumption of a courtroom. Second, sureties should make themselves available at the time of the hearing so that if release is ordered it can be entered into immediately. Being reachable at the right moment matters more than being physically present.

There is also a category for the harder cases. Where a matter has two or more of a listed set of features, counsel may identify it to the presiding judicial officer as a Complex Bail Matter. The listed features are two or more proposed sureties where the Crown seeks to cross examine, matters requiring the assistance of an interpreter, a section 524 application with two or more existing release orders, and specialized prosecution team matters identified as such at the time of the hearing. A matter accepted as complex becomes eligible for additional court time, which will not ordinarily exceed two hours, and complex hearings are heard the same day they are identified as complex. Our Ontario bail lawyers page sets out how a release plan gets built to survive that level of scrutiny.

Your surname sets your first appearance day at 10 Armoury Street

This one catches almost everybody, and it is published in the open on the Court's own location page for 10 Armoury Street. Appearance day in courtroom 201 is aligned with the first letter of your last name.

• Monday: A to B, including R
• Tuesday: C to F, including J
• Wednesday: G to L, excluding J
• Thursday: M to P
• Friday: Q to Z, excluding R

Read that twice, because it is genuinely strange. R is pulled forward to Monday and J is pulled forward to Tuesday. There is no logic to it that is visible from outside the building, and it is not something anyone would guess. A Ramirez and a Barnes share a Monday. A Jackson sits with the C to F group on Tuesday.

The same courtroom runs on published time tiers: case management at 9:00, video remand at 11:00, lunch at 1:00, and first appearance and self represented matters at 2:00.

Now the caveat, stated plainly rather than quietly dropped. The same block on the Court's page is headed as a daily case management court and, in the same line, as a private information court sitting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesdays. Those two things do not sit comfortably beside a Monday to Friday alphabet split, and the page is internally inconsistent about it. So treat the alphabet rule as the Court's published pattern, not as a promise about your matter. Your own paperwork governs. If your release documents or your summons give a different date, that date is the one that counts, and missing it is a fresh criminal charge on top of the one you already have.

Which Toronto Police division is holding your file: 31, 32 or 33

Before any court is involved, a police division is. Three Toronto Police Service divisions cover the North York area, and each publishes its own address and phone line.

• 31 Division, 40 Norfinch Dr., Toronto, ON M3N 1X1, 416-808-3100
• 32 Division, 30 Ellerslie Av., Toronto, ON M2N 1X8, 416-808-3200
• 33 Division, 50 Upjohn Rd., Toronto, ON M3B 2W1, 416-808-3300

All three publish the same availability: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service wide non emergency line is 416-808-2222.

Which division has your file matters more than people expect. The division holds the officer in charge, the arrest paperwork, anything seized from you, and the first written version of the story the Crown will later read. It is where a request to get property back begins. It is where the material for a bail package has to be pulled from. If you were released on an undertaking carrying a condition you cannot realistically live with, the division sits in the chain that has to be worked through before anything changes.

Toronto Police does publish a neighbourhood list for each division, which is the closest thing to an official answer to the question of where you are. 31 Division lists York University Heights, Humber Summit, Humbermede, Glenfield-Jane Heights, Oakdale-Beverley Heights, Black Creek, Pelmo Park-Humberlea and Downsview. 32 Division lists a longer set including Lansing-Westgate, Yorkdale-Glen Park, Westminster-Branson, Clanton Park, Newtonbrook West, Englemount-Lawrence, Bathurst Manor, Yonge-Doris, Willowdale West, Bedford Park-Nortown, Lawrence Park North, Newtonbrook East, East Willowdale and Avondale. 33 Division lists Victoria Village, Bayview Woods-Steeles, Henry Farm, Hillcrest Village, Banbury-Don Mills, Parkwoods-O'Connor Hills, Bayview Village, Don Valley Village, Pleasant View, Leaside-Bennington and Fenside-Parkwoods.

Getting to any of them, or to the courthouse afterwards, is its own small ordeal. Allen Road, the expressway most of this part of the city relies on, runs from Eglinton Avenue West to the northern portion of Dufferin Street. At 7.5 kilometres it is one of the shortest expressways in Toronto, it carries roughly 80,000 vehicles during weekday peak periods, and a stretch of the Yonge University subway line sits in its median from Eglinton Avenue to north of Wilson Avenue. Plan the trip downtown properly. Court does not wait.

No boundary map exists, so your own paperwork decides the answer

Here is a negative fact that is more useful than most positive ones. Toronto Police does not publish a map of divisional boundaries. The service maps page offers six maps: crime year to date, crime year end, crime by neighbourhood, fatal traffic collisions, calls for service, and community assets. Not one of them is a jurisdiction map. The only official lookup is an address widget on the my neighbourhood page.

The neighbourhood lists are not boundaries either, and you can prove that from the lists themselves. York University Heights appears under both 31 Division and 32 Division. Downsview appears under both as well. St. Andrew-Windfields appears under both 32 Division and 33 Division, and so does Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills. A neighbourhood name cannot tell you which division holds your file when several names sit in two lists at once.

So do not guess from a map, and be sceptical of any website that shows you one. Read the documents you were actually given. The division number is printed on them. So is the courthouse address, the courtroom, the date and the time you are required to attend, and usually a badge number and an occurrence number. Those items are the entire practical map of your case, and every one of them beats an inference drawn from geography.

If you are not sure what you are holding, bring it in and we will read it with you. Release documents repay careful reading in particular, because the conditions in them bite immediately and breaching one is a separate offence under section 145 of the Criminal Code. Charges that commonly arrive with tight conditions attached include assault offences and impaired driving. In both, the conditions imposed at the roadside or at the station shape the next several months of a person's life more than the charge itself does. If you are facing an assault charge, our North York assault lawyer page covers bail, partner cases and the July 2026 changes.

When a case leaves the Ontario Court of Justice for 361 University Avenue

Not every Toronto case stays at 10 Armoury Street. There is a second level of criminal court, and knowing when a case might move there is part of understanding who decides what.

The Superior Court of Justice publishes its Toronto locations by function. 130 Queen Street is Divisional Court. 330 University Avenue and 393 University Avenue handle civil matters. 47 Sheppard Avenue East handles small claims. Criminal and family sit at 361 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1T3. The criminal line there is 416-327-5284 and the family line is 416-327-2064. The Crown Attorney's office for that court is 416-327-5990. Court offices run Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with counter service from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

What sends a case there is not where you live. It is the classification of the offence and, for a large group of offences, the Crown's election on how to proceed. Summary matters stay in the Ontario Court of Justice. The most serious indictable offences go to the Superior Court. Between those two sits a wide band of hybrid offences where the Crown elects first, and where, if the Crown proceeds by indictment, you then have an election of your own on the mode of trial, which can include a judge and jury and, for some offences, a preliminary inquiry.

That is one of the very few points in the whole process where a genuine strategic decision belongs to the defence rather than to someone else. It is also among the least reversible. Getting it right depends on disclosure being complete and properly analysed first, which is exactly the work that gets skipped when a file is run cheaply. Cases where the election question arrives early and matters a great deal include fraud charges and sexual offence allegations, where the difference between a summary track and an indictable one reshapes exposure, timelines and trial strategy all at once.

It is worth saying plainly that a North York address plays no part in any of this. The Superior Court has one criminal location for Toronto, and everybody in the city goes to the same one.

Specialized courts are all downtown now, and Gladue applies wherever you are

The Ontario Court of Justice operates specialized or therapeutic courts dealing with domestic violence, mental health, problematic substance use and Indigenous issues. In its own published description these include drug treatment courts, mental health courts, community support courts, Indigenous Peoples' or Gladue courts, and the Integrated Domestic Violence Court.

For a North York case the relevant point is that none of these sits in North York, because no Ontario Court of Justice criminal court sits in North York. The Court's announcement about the building at 10 Armoury Street says it brings court services into one location including specialized courts, and gives mental health courts, Gladue courts, drug treatment court and youth courts as its examples. That announcement dates from the opening of the building and is written partly in the future tense, so treat it as a description of what the building was designed to hold rather than as this week's sitting schedule. If a specialized court is relevant to your matter, the schedule has to be confirmed for your case rather than assumed from a web page, and that is a phone call we make rather than a guess anyone should be making.

The consolidation cuts both ways. Every specialized court being in one building means a Toronto case is never shut out because the local courthouse does not run that court. It also means there is no local option at all, and every appearance involves the trip downtown.

On community support courts, the published process is that a person who wants to be considered applies to the local Crown Attorney, and that court workers or duty counsel can help someone without a lawyer make that application. Once a person is admitted, an assessment of their needs is completed, a treatment plan is developed, the case is adjourned while they work on it, and there are usually check in dates with the court along the way.

Gladue deserves its own paragraph, because this is where bad web content does real harm. Indigenous Peoples' courts are not available in every courthouse. That does not reduce anyone's rights by a single inch. All Canadian courts are required to apply Gladue principles and the relevant Criminal Code sentencing and bail principles whether or not a matter is heard in an Indigenous Peoples' court. The obligation comes from section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code and from R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688, and section 493.2(b) carries the same requirement into bail, requiring particular attention to the circumstances of Indigenous accused so that pre trial detention is not imposed unnecessarily. No courthouse closure and no consolidation changes that.

A family case and a domestic charge: the one court in Canada that hears both

Most people in this position are running two files at once, in two buildings, in front of two judges, telling the same story twice and hoping the two sets of orders do not contradict each other. There is exactly one court in the country designed to fix that, and North York is one of the few places where you can realistically get into it.

The Integrated Domestic Violence Court hears a criminal domestic charge and a family separation together, in front of a single judge. It opened in 2011 at the 311 Jarvis courthouse in downtown Toronto, and the Court describes it as the first and only one of its kind in Canada.

Eligibility is specific, and this is where North York comes in. The family case has to be at one of two Toronto courthouses, either 47 Sheppard Avenue East or 311 Jarvis Street. The criminal case has to be at 10 Armoury Street. For a great many North York families those are already the two buildings involved, because 47 Sheppard Avenue East is the family courthouse for this part of the city and 10 Armoury Street is now the criminal courthouse for all of it. The pairing the court requires is the pairing you already have, without doing anything.

The remaining conditions are equally precise. The family case has to deal with decision making responsibility, parenting time, support or a restraining order. The criminal case has to be a summary conviction charge involving alleged domestic violence, and a hybrid charge counts where the Crown has elected to proceed summarily. The accused cannot be in jail. The court cannot hear divorce, the division of family property, or child protection cases.

What it does do is substantial. On the family side it holds case conferences, hears motions and may conduct short trials. On the criminal side it hears bail variation applications, conducts pre trial meetings, accepts guilty pleas and may conduct trials. The benefit the Court emphasises is coherence. One judge can make sure bail conditions do not cut across a parenting time order. One judge sees the whole family rather than half of it. Decisions arrive without waiting in two separate queues, and nobody has to repeat their story to a second stranger in a second building.

This only works if one firm is genuinely running both halves of the problem. We practise family law and criminal defence out of the same office, which is the practical precondition for using this court at all. For background on how the two proceedings interact, our page on domestic violence in Canada covers the ground.

One correction while we are here, because people arrive at the wrong counter constantly. 47 Sheppard Avenue East is a family and small claims location and nothing else. The provincial listing shows exactly two types of court there, family at 416-326-3592 and small claims at 416-326-3554. The address is 47 Sheppard Ave. East, Toronto, Ontario M2N 5N1. Court offices run Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with counter service from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. It is not a criminal court and it is not a ticket court.

Tickets run on a separate system, and none of its three courthouses is in North York

A provincial offence is not a criminal charge, and at first instance it goes nowhere near 10 Armoury Street. Speeding, most Highway Traffic Act matters and municipal by law offences run through provincial offences courts administered by the City of Toronto.

The City runs three of them, and none is in North York.

• Toronto South Court, courtrooms and administration, at 92 Front St. E. The City describes the building as sitting on the north west corner of Front Street and Jarvis Street.
• Toronto East Court Office, at 1530 Markham Rd., on the north west corner of Markham Road and Milner Avenue.
• Toronto West Court Office, at 2700 Eglinton Ave. W., one block west of Keele Street on the north side of Eglinton Avenue.

The administration counter sits at the Front Street location. The City notes that a provincial offences administration office, described as the customer service counter, is on the second floor there, and that it handles fine payment after a court appearance, witness fees, previously obtained fine payments, transcript requests, appeal inquiries and trial requests at the same counters.

Service counters at all three locations are open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday excluding holidays, and you can attend in person with or without an appointment. City Court Services can be reached at 416-338-7320 or at poacourt@toronto.ca.

Two things people in North York regularly confuse with this system. The first is the North York Civic Centre at 5100 Yonge Street. It is a City counter, open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it is a perfectly good place to deal with many City matters. It is not a court. The second is 47 Sheppard Avenue East, which as set out above is family and small claims, not provincial offences.

By law matters have a local dimension worth knowing about. North York Community Council covers wards 6, 8, 15, 16, 17 and 18, and community councils in Toronto make final decisions on some local matters rather than sending everything to City Council. That is where a by law comes from. The prosecution of a breach of one, however, still lands in a downtown or Scarborough or west end courtroom.

The reason any of this matters beyond inconvenience is that some driving matters are not provincial offences at all. Dangerous driving and impaired driving are Criminal Code charges. They go to criminal court and a conviction carries a criminal record. If you are not certain which system you are in, the document you were handed will tell you. Our page on dangerous driving charges sets out where the line falls.

Questions we get from people charged in North York

Is there a criminal courthouse in North York?

No. Adult criminal matters for Toronto are heard at the Ontario Court of Justice at 10 Armoury Street. A 17 storey courthouse there amalgamated six separate Ontario Court of Justice criminal courthouse locations from across the city into one building. If you are looking for a courthouse on Finch Avenue for your trial date, you are looking in the wrong place.

Why do people keep mentioning 2201 Finch Avenue West?

Because bail did not move downtown with everything else. The Ontario Court of Justice runs a Regional Bail Centre at 2201 Finch Ave. West, Toronto, Ontario M9M 2Y9. So a North York arrest can produce a release decision in the north end of the city and then a case that runs downtown for everything after that.

What happens if I am arrested on a Saturday in North York?

Weekend and statutory holiday bail matters run through what the system calls WASH court. The practice direction that took effect on 1 June 2026 says all reasonable steps should be taken to accommodate bail hearings on the same day the parties are ready to proceed, and it states that this principle applies to weekend and statutory holiday bail courts as well as weekday bail courts.

Will I have to be in the courtroom in person for my bail hearing?

Usually not in the way people expect. The Ontario Court of Justice direction on mode of appearance says that at first appearances following arrest, accused persons will appear by video unless otherwise directed by the Court, and that sureties may appear in person or by video. The same direction records that the Court may still order an accused brought in person where video resources are not available. Treat video as the expectation rather than a guarantee.

How long is a bail hearing supposed to take?

The Court expects routine contested bail hearings to be completed in no longer than 30 minutes, and consent releases in no longer than 15 minutes, both subject to the discretion of the presiding judicial officer. Where a matter has two or more listed complicating features it can be identified as a Complex Bail Matter, which becomes eligible for additional time that will not ordinarily exceed two hours.

Which day is my first appearance at 10 Armoury Street?

The Court publishes a pattern for courtroom 201 based on the first letter of your last name. Monday covers A to B including R. Tuesday covers C to F including J. Wednesday covers G to L excluding J. Thursday covers M to P. Friday covers Q to Z excluding R. Always follow your own paperwork, because that is a published pattern rather than a promise about your file.

Which Toronto Police division charged me?

North York is served by 31 Division at 40 Norfinch Dr., 32 Division at 30 Ellerslie Av., and 33 Division at 50 Upjohn Rd. All three operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Toronto Police does not publish a divisional boundary map, so the reliable answer is the division number printed on your own documents.

Does Kazandji Law actually have a North York office?

Yes. It is at 70 Forest Manor Road, Unit 4B, North York, Ontario M2J 0A9, and the number is 647-588-3234. It is genuinely useful for meeting, reviewing disclosure and signing documents. It does not move your courthouse, it does not get you an earlier date, and it does not change which judge hears you.

I have a family case and a domestic charge. Do I have to run two separate files?

Possibly not, and North York is one of the few places where this applies. The Integrated Domestic Violence Court hears both before one judge. It requires a family case at 47 Sheppard Avenue East or 311 Jarvis Street plus a criminal case at 10 Armoury Street, a summary conviction charge involving alleged domestic violence, and an accused who is not in jail.

What is 47 Sheppard Avenue East?

It is a family and small claims courthouse at 47 Sheppard Ave. East, Toronto, Ontario M2N 5N1. It is not a criminal court and it is not a provincial offences court. For a North York family file it is very likely your building, and it is one of the two family locations that can make you eligible for the Integrated Domestic Violence Court.

Where does a speeding ticket from North York get dealt with?

Not in North York. The City of Toronto runs three provincial offences court locations, at 92 Front St. E., at 1530 Markham Rd. and at 2700 Eglinton Ave. W. Service counters at all three are open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday excluding holidays, and you can attend with or without an appointment.

Can I get a Gladue court or a drug treatment court in North York?

Not locally, because no Ontario Court of Justice criminal court sits in North York. The Court describes the building at 10 Armoury Street as holding specialized courts, giving mental health courts, Gladue courts, drug treatment court and youth courts as its examples, and any sitting schedule has to be confirmed for your own matter. Separately, Gladue principles apply in every Canadian criminal court whether or not a specialized Indigenous Peoples court sits there.

What an office on Forest Manor Road changes, and what it does not

We started with two sentences and it is worth ending on them. There is a Kazandji Law office in North York, at 70 Forest Manor Road, Unit 4B. There is no criminal courthouse in North York. Everything in between is a question of who decides.

What the office changes is access to your own lawyer. Disclosure gets read with you rather than summarised at you over the phone. A surety can come in, be walked through what they are actually signing, and have a declaration prepared, sworn and filed before a hearing the Court expects to finish inside half an hour. Documents get signed without anyone losing a day of work. Across the life of a file that adds up to better instructions and far fewer surprises, and better instructions genuinely do change outcomes.

What it does not change is the list of people who decide things. The division holding your file is still 31, 32 or 33. A justice of the peace at 2201 Finch Avenue West still decides whether you are released. The Chief Justice's practice direction still sets the tempo and the time targets. Courtroom 201 at 10 Armoury Street still sorts first appearances by the first letter of your surname. The Crown's election still decides whether you stay in the Ontario Court of Justice or move to 361 University Avenue. The City still runs the ticket courts at Front Street, Markham Road and Eglinton Avenue West. None of that is negotiable, and any lawyer who implies otherwise because they have an address nearby is not being straight with you.

If the charge did not come from North York at all, other pages will serve you better, because the courthouse and often the police service are different. We handle cases from Scarborough, from Etobicoke, and from Vaughan just north of Steeles, where the police service and the courthouse both change.

If you have been charged, the next step is short. Bring the documents you were given, including anything carrying a division number, a courtroom and a date. Call 647-588-3234. Consultations are free, and the earlier a file is read properly, the more of these decisions can still be influenced.