London Criminal Defence Lawyers

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Criminal charges in London are heard at the London Courthouse, 80 Dundas Street, where the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice share one building. Kazandji Law is a Toronto firm. We have no London office, we travel to 80 Dundas to appear, and we use the remote options the Court permits where they genuinely apply. This page is built around the phrases you will actually hear in that building, decoded one at a time, because most of what goes wrong for a first time accused in London is a language problem before it is a legal one.

Written by the criminal defence team at Kazandji Law, led by founding partner Fadi Matthew Kazandji. Court details were checked against the Ontario Court of Justice London location page, the Ministry of the Attorney General court locations listing, the Middlesex Law Association and the City of London.

“You are released on an undertaking”: the sentence that sounds like good news and is also a list of rules

People hear the word released and stop listening. That is understandable and it is the single most expensive mistake made in the first week of a London criminal case. Release is not the end of anything. It is the beginning of a period in which your behaviour is governed by a document, and that document was drafted by someone who has never met you.

Three different pieces of paper can send you to 80 Dundas Street, and they are not interchangeable. An appearance notice is issued by police when you are not arrested or are released at the scene. It tells you where and when to attend and usually carries no conditions at all. An undertaking is a promise you sign to the officer in charge, and it can carry conditions. A release order is made by a justice after a bail hearing, and it is the heaviest of the three because it can require a surety and it can attach conditions that reach deep into your daily life.

Read the conditions line by line, out loud, before you do anything else. Not contacting a named person means not contacting them through a friend, a relative or a social media account. Not attending a named address means not standing on the sidewalk outside it. Residing at a specific address means sleeping there, not receiving mail there. Courts in London treat these conditions as binding from the moment you sign, not from the moment you understand them.

Breaching a condition is a separate criminal offence, prosecuted separately, and it can convert a manageable file into two files. It also gives the Crown a straightforward argument at any future bail hearing, which is why failure to comply charges do so much damage out of proportion to the underlying allegation. If you are still in custody and waiting for a hearing, the mechanics of getting out are set out on our Ontario bail hearings page.

“We are just setting a date”: why your first appearance at 80 Dundas decides nothing and still matters

A first appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice is administrative. Nobody gives evidence. No finding is made. The court confirms who you are, confirms that you have or are getting a lawyer, and asks whether disclosure has been provided. It is over in a couple of minutes and it can feel like a waste of a morning.

It is not. Three things happen there that shape everything after. Disclosure gets requested and the clock on reviewing it starts. Your mode of appearance for future dates gets set. And the file acquires a rhythm, productive or drifting, that is hard to change later. Cases that resolve well in London are usually cases where disclosure was chased hard in the first month.

Disclosure is the Crown brief: officer notes, the synopsis, witness statements, any video, any 911 audio, breath technician records. It does not arrive complete and it does not arrive on its own. Somebody has to ask, then ask again, then put the gaps in writing so the absence of material sits on the record. That is unglamorous work and it decides more London cases than cross examination does.

What you should not do at a first appearance is talk about the allegation. Not to the officer in the hallway, not to the Crown, not to anyone in the row behind you. The people in that building are not your audience.

“Courtroom 4, counsel matters, 9:30”: London’s case management language, decoded line by line

London runs its adult criminal case management court in Courtroom 4, and the Court publishes how that room is organised. Two things sort you. The first is your surname. The second is the time of day.

The surname split is the part nobody explains, and it is the part that sends people to the building on the wrong day. The Court publishes Courtroom 4 on this pattern, with youth matters listed separately in Courtroom 1 on Mondays.

Day	Who is listed in Courtroom 4
Monday	Adult accused with surnames A to D
Tuesday	Adult accused with surnames E to K
Wednesday	Adult accused with surnames L to P
Thursday	Adult accused with surnames Q to Z
Friday	Federal matters

That last row is worth pausing on. Federal matters are listed on Fridays regardless of your surname, because they are prosecuted by a different service under federal statutes rather than by the provincial Crown. In practice that most often means drug charges. If your paperwork gives you a Friday and your surname starts with a B, that is not a clerical error. It is telling you something about who holds your file.

The second sort is the time tier. Courtroom 4 runs on a published schedule, and turning up at the wrong hour means sitting through other people’s matters until the room comes back round to yours.

Time	Tier
9:30 a.m.	Counsel matters
11:15 a.m.	Morning break
12:00 p.m.	Agent and paralegal matters
1:00 p.m.	Lunch
2:30 p.m.	Agent and paralegal matters, continued
3:00 p.m.	First appearances without counsel

So the phrase Courtroom 4, counsel matters, 9:30 means a represented accused whose surname falls in that weekday’s band, being spoken to by a lawyer in the first tier of the day. The 3 p.m. tier is where unrepresented people end up, and it is the longest and least useful hour in the week to be sitting in. Youth matters run in Courtroom 1 on Mondays, and they follow a different logic entirely, which our youth criminal defence page explains.

All of this is published by the Court, and almost none of it appears on the websites of firms advertising in London. That is why people arrive on a Thursday for a Tuesday matter.

“Your lawyer will appear remotely”: what a Toronto firm can honestly promise you in London, and what it cannot

Here is the part most out of town firms leave out, so we will put it near the top rather than at the bottom.

That is the honest frame. Now the law behind it, stated precisely, because the precision is the point.

The starting rule is in person. Criminal Code section 715.21 says that a person who appears at, participates in or presides at a proceeding shall do so in person, except as otherwise provided in the Act. Remote attendance is the carve out, not the default. Anyone who tells you criminal court is all on Zoom now is describing 2020, not the law as it stands.

There are two separate sets of rules, and firms routinely blur them. Section 715.23 governs when the accused may appear by audioconference or videoconference, and it requires the court to be satisfied that doing so is appropriate having regard to all the circumstances, including your location and personal circumstances, the cost of attending in person, the suitability of the place you would appear from, your right to a fair and public hearing, and the nature and seriousness of the offence. The provision that governs defence counsel is a different one. Section 715.25 defines a participant as a person other than an accused, an offender, a witness, a juror, a judge or a justice, and defence counsel sits inside that definition. Under section 715.25 the court may allow a participant to attend remotely on a similar list of considerations, and the party who puts a participant on video normally bears the technology cost. When a firm cites 715.23 to explain how its lawyer appears by video, it has quoted the wrong section.

The stage by stage provisions sit at sections 715.231 through 715.241 and they attach different consent requirements to preliminary inquiries, summary and indictable trials, pleas and sentencings. Two backstops apply throughout. If a court refuses a remote request under this Part it must give reasons on the record under section 715.221. And under section 715.222 a court may end a remote appearance at any point and take whatever measure it considers appropriate. Remote attendance is permissive and judicially controlled from beginning to end. Nobody has a right to it.

On top of the Criminal Code sits the practice direction in force in the Ontario Court of Justice, Mode of Appearance for Ontario Court of Justice Criminal Proceedings, issued by Chief Justice Nicklas under rules 1.4 and 5 of the Criminal Rules and carrying a last updated date of 31 March 2025 on the Court’s own page. It is specific about which stages bend and which do not.

Stage	How it actually runs
First appearance after arrest and contested bail	The accused appears by video unless the Court directs otherwise
Case management, including JICMC and trial confirmation	Out of custody accused and counsel may attend virtually or in person unless a judicial officer directs otherwise. Counsel attending virtually are expected on video, not audio
Judicial pre-trial	Conducted by video unless otherwise directed
Guilty plea and sentencing	All participants in person unless the Court allows a virtual plea, which has to be applied for
Trial and preliminary inquiry	All participants in person unless a judge orders otherwise, normally on a written application

One line in that practice direction matters more than the rest for anyone choosing an out of town firm. Because private consultation is difficult across mixed modes, Crown and defence counsel are expected to attend all criminal proceedings other than case management appearances in person if the accused is appearing in person, unless a judicial officer directs otherwise. Put plainly: if you are in the room at 80 Dundas Street, your lawyer is in the room. A firm that promises you an entirely remote defence is either misreading the direction or hoping you will not.

What about permission to appear in London at all? There is none to get. A lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Ontario holds a licence that covers the whole province. There is no local call, no local admission and no courthouse registration for London, and a Toronto lawyer stands on exactly the same footing at 80 Dundas as a lawyer whose office is on Queens Avenue. The honest question was never entitlement. It is availability, and it is what a travelling firm does when your trial date collides with something else.

So here is the commitment. We travel for the stages that require presence. We appear remotely for case management and judicial pre-trials where the Court allows it, which is most of the time. And we tell you before you retain us if the shape of your matter means a London firm would serve you better. We take the same approach in Ottawa and in Kitchener and Waterloo.

“Crown pre-trial” and “judicial pre-trial”: two meetings that sound the same and are not

Clients hear both phrases in the same week and assume they are the same event described twice. They are not, and confusing them is how people end up with no idea what has been discussed about their case.

A Crown pre-trial is a conversation between your lawyer and the assigned Crown. No judge is involved. Its purpose is to find out what the Crown’s position actually is, what the Crown says the evidence establishes, whether any charge can be withdrawn, and what a resolution would look like if one is available. It is frank, it is off the record, and it is where a great deal of the useful work in a criminal case gets done. In London the provincial Crown is reachable through the office listed by the Court at VirtualCrownLondon@ontario.ca or 519-660-3003.

A judicial pre-trial is a meeting with a judge. Counsel for both sides attend and the judge gives a view. That view is not binding and it is not a ruling, but it is informed and it carries weight, and a Crown position that has been softened at a judicial pre-trial tends to stay softened. Under the practice direction, judicial pre-trials are conducted by video unless otherwise directed, which is one of the genuine places where a Toronto firm loses nothing at all.

The sequence runs Crown pre-trial, then judicial pre-trial, then either a resolution or a trial date. A file that reaches a judicial pre-trial without a proper Crown pre-trial is a file where nobody has done the preparation, and judges notice.

“You are going to JICMC”: Courtroom 7, Monday morning, and who ends up there

JICMC stands for Judge-led Intensive Case Management Court. In London it sits in Courtroom 7 on Mondays at 9:30 a.m., which the Ontario Court of Justice publishes on its London location page.

The name causes unnecessary alarm. Being sent to JICMC is not a finding about you and it is not a punishment. It is a management tool for matters that are not moving: a large disclosure brief, multiple accused, issues that have not been narrowed, or more adjournments than the Court will tolerate. A judge takes hold of the timetable and holds both sides to it.

Two practical consequences. First, JICMC is a case management appearance under the practice direction, so counsel can appear virtually unless a judicial officer directs otherwise. Second, JICMC compresses time. Deadlines that were drifting become dates, and a lawyer who has not read the disclosure will be exposed in front of a judge who is keeping a list. Whether your matter is sent there is a judicial decision, not something you or your lawyer elects.

“Plea court is Courtroom 2”: why London runs judicial case management and guilty pleas in the same room

The Court lists Courtroom 2 in London as the Judicial Case Management and Guilty Plea Court, sitting Monday to Friday at 9:30 a.m. One room, two functions, and the pairing tells you something about how London moves criminal work. Matters that are ready to resolve and matters that need a judge to set a path forward are handled in the same list, by the same bench, at the same hour.

Be clear about what a guilty plea is. It is not a formality. Before accepting it the judge must conduct the inquiry required by section 606 of the Criminal Code, confirming that the plea is voluntary, that you understand it admits the essential elements of the offence, that you understand its nature and consequences, and that the court is not bound by any agreement between counsel. A plea entered in Courtroom 2 is very hard to undo.

A plea is also in person by default. Under the practice direction all participants must appear in person for a guilty plea and sentencing unless the Court allows a virtual plea, and the Court publishes a consent application form for that with a filing expectation of several business days before the proposed date. An oral application to the plea court judge is possible, but counsel has to arrive with a plan for what happens if it is refused. This is one of the stages where our being a Toronto firm means we drive to London, and we plan the day accordingly.

“There is no trial readiness court in London”: what happens instead, and who decides

If you have been told to look up your trial readiness date in London, you will not find one. The Ontario Court of Justice states it directly on its London page: there is no formal trial readiness court, and trial readiness will be canvassed in individual cases by the Local Administrative Judge or designate, as appropriate.

That is a real structural difference from courthouses running a fixed weekly confirmation list, and it cuts both ways. A file that is genuinely ready is not dragged back for a ceremonial appearance. A file that is not ready may not be caught, because there is no routine checkpoint. The burden sits on counsel to know whether the file is actually trial ready rather than waiting for a list to ask.

Trial readiness in practice means a short list of unglamorous questions. Is disclosure complete, or is the outstanding material identified in writing. Have applications been served, including any Charter notice. Are witnesses available and, where needed, summonsed. Is the trial estimate honest rather than optimistic. Collapsing a trial date because an estimate was wrong costs months, and without a confirmation list there is nobody else to notice the problem for you.

“Duty counsel will speak to it”: who stands up for you when your own lawyer is not in the room

Duty counsel are Legal Aid Ontario lawyers who assist people at court who do not have their own lawyer that day. In London the Court lists the duty counsel office at dcc.london@lao.on.ca or 519-660-5095. They are experienced, they are busy, and they are genuinely useful for a narrow set of tasks.

Duty counsel can speak to an adjournment, give summary advice, assist at a bail hearing, and sometimes assist on a guilty plea to a minor matter. What they cannot do is carry your file. They will not have read the disclosure, they will not have had a Crown pre-trial about your case, and they will meet a different set of people tomorrow. Relying on duty counsel as a strategy is how simple files become convictions.

There is a better route for routine dates, and London publishes the address for it. Under the Ontario Court of Justice practice direction on Enhanced Designations of Counsel, a represented accused who has filed one can have matters adjourned without personally attending. London lists a dedicated filing address for this at London.OCJ.Designation@ontario.ca, which not every Ontario courthouse does. Filed properly, a designation means you keep your shift and your lawyer handles the remand. It does not cover every stage of a case, and it does not apply where the Court requires you personally.

A parallel direction lets counsel file a waiver of personal attendance so an in custody client’s matter can be adjourned in their absence, sparing the transport and the holding cell for a two minute remand. Both need counsel to set them up at the outset. Neither happens on its own.

“Family court”: in London that phrase does not mean the Ontario Court of Justice

London is a Unified Family Court site. Family matters are heard in the Family Court Branch of the Superior Court of Justice, not in the Ontario Court of Justice, and that surprises people who assume the two words family and court point somewhere obvious. Your criminal charge sits in the Ontario Court of Justice. Your family file sits in a different branch, under different rules, with a different judge, in the same building at 80 Dundas Street.

Two files in two branches is not a filing problem. It is a substantive risk, and it concentrates in one place: bail conditions. A no contact condition drafted in a criminal courtroom can cut straight across an access arrangement made on the family side. A condition requiring you to reside at a particular address can collide with an order about the matrimonial home. Nobody in either courtroom is automatically told what the other one did. Where an assault allegation arises in a domestic setting, this overlap is usually the most consequential thing happening in the client’s life, and it is the part that gets handled last.

Handled deliberately it is manageable. Conditions can be drafted with an exception for contact in accordance with a family court order, and variations can be sought on consent. What does not work is assuming coordination happens by itself, or discovering the conflict when an officer is asked to read two documents at once. Breaching bail while a domestic matter is live carries its own exposure, set out on our page about domestic misconduct while on bail.

“It is only a provincial offence”: why that goes to 824 Dundas Street and never to 80

London has the most confusable pair of court addresses in southwestern Ontario, and they are on the same street. 80 Dundas Street is the criminal courthouse. 824 Dundas Street is the Provincial Offences Court, which the City of London runs and which the City lists at 824 Dundas Street, London, ON N5W 5R1.

	80 Dundas Street	824 Dundas Street
What is heard there	Criminal Code charges, in the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice	Provincial Offences Act charges and municipal by-law matters
Who prosecutes	The provincial Crown Attorney, or a federal prosecution service for federal charges	Prosecutors acting for the City of London
What a finding leaves behind	A criminal record entry on conviction	No criminal record
Also in the building	Superior Court Family Court Branch, Small Claims, the Crown Attorney’s Office, Victim Services	Provincial Offences administration

Here is the wrinkle that catches even careful readers. The City’s own page describes 824 Dundas Street as the Ontario Court of Justice, and that is not an error. Provincial Offences Court is a sitting of the Ontario Court of Justice. The distinction is not which court it is. The distinction is what is charged. Criminal Code charges are heard at 80 Dundas. Provincial Offences Act charges are heard at 824. So if your notice says 824, you are not facing a criminal charge, and the consequences are different in kind rather than in degree.

The trap runs the other way too. Impaired operation, refusing a breath sample, dangerous driving and failing to remain are Criminal Code offences heard at 80 Dundas, not at 824, whatever else was handed to you at the roadside. If you are unsure which you have, read the statute named on the document rather than the street number.

“Enter from Queens Avenue”: the sentence that stops you missing your own court date

This is the most useful sentence on this page and no competing firm publishes it. The courthouse is addressed as 80 Dundas Street. The door you can actually use faces the other way. People walk to the address printed on their paperwork, find a door that does not open, and start the morning late to their own matter.

Plan the rest of it too. Metered street parking around the building carries a two hour limit, which is not enough for a court morning that runs long, and several parking lots serve the area. Security screening takes time and the queue builds before the 9:30 a.m. counsel tier. Wireless internet is available inside, through a public account and through an OPSGuest account that requires a registration form.

Court office hours at 80 Dundas run 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, with counter service from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. French language services are available at the counter and by phone. Dress as though the judge will remember you, because in a courthouse this size the judge often will.

Why Kazandji Law

We are a criminal defence firm. That is what we do, and it is what we do in London when a client’s charge is returnable at 80 Dundas Street.

Our offices are at 180 John Street Unit 320 in Toronto, 7191 Yonge Street Suite 310 in Thornhill, and in North York and Oakville. Four offices, none in London. We travel for the stages that require presence and appear remotely where the Court permits it. Founding partner Fadi Matthew Kazandji leads the defence practice, and the person you speak to about your file is the person who handles it.

What we are worth choosing for is not proximity, because we cannot offer that. It is preparation. Disclosure chased in writing from the first week. Crown pre-trials that start from the evidence rather than from a script. Honest advice about what a plea costs you, including the parts that outlast the sentence. If your matter needs something we cannot give it, we will say so before you retain us, not after. We defend the full range of charges and we handle criminal appeals where a conviction or sentence needs challenging.

London criminal defence: twelve questions answered

This page is general information about criminal procedure in London, Ontario and is not legal advice. Court schedules, courtroom assignments and contact details change; confirm anything time sensitive with the Ontario Court of Justice or the courthouse before relying on it. Reading this page does not create a solicitor and client relationship with Kazandji Law. If you are facing a charge, get advice about your own circumstances.