Criminal Defence Lawyers in Newmarket, Ontario

We defend people charged at the Newmarket Courthouse, 50 Eagle Street West. The building hears criminal and criminal youth matters, holds the Crown Attorney's Office for that courthouse, and puts both the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice under one roof. York Region also runs a single provincial offences court, and it sits a short distance away on Yonge Street. A lot of the people who end up at either address did not start in Newmarket. They drove in.

So this page is arranged by that drive. It starts at the outer edge of York Region, moves one ring closer with every section until it reaches the room where a judicial officer decides something about your liberty, then works its way back out to the police station and the ticket counter. Every fact below was checked against a primary source on 14 September 2026. Anything that could not be checked was left out.

Start at the edge of the region, because most people reading this drove in

Newmarket is a destination courthouse. That single sentence explains most of what is different about a Newmarket case compared with a case in a town that has no court of its own. You are not waiting to find out where your matter got sent. You already know the address. What you do not automatically know is the building, the level of court, the courtroom, or the time of day you will actually be called.

The first practical instruction is boring and it is the most important one here. Read your own paperwork. A release order, an appearance notice, a summons or a notice of trial names the courthouse, the courtroom and the date. Those documents win every argument with a website, including this one. If a page tells you where to go and your paper tells you something else, believe the paper.

One regional fact is settled and worth carrying with you. York Region publishes exactly one provincial offences court, listed as Newmarket Court with the code 4960, and the Region states that its Provincial Offences Act early resolution meetings, hearings and trials are conducted either online or in person in Newmarket. If you got a ticket anywhere in the Region, the paperwork trail runs through this town.

On distance and honesty: the nearest Kazandji Law office to Newmarket is Thornhill, at 7191 Yonge Street, Suite 310. Thornhill sits inside York Region, which is worth saying because it is true, and it is still a different municipality with a different drive. The firm has four offices, in Toronto, Thornhill, North York and Oakville, and none of them is in Newmarket. A licence from the Law Society of Ontario covers the whole province, and there is no separate Newmarket qualification a lawyer can hold. What matters is whether counsel knows how this particular building runs. If your matter sits elsewhere in York Region, the same logic applies in Richmond Hill, Markham and Vaughan, and the firm's general criminal defence practice covers all of them.

Two Newmarket addresses, and which one is yours depends on who charged you

People lose mornings to this. There are two courts in this town that matter to a person facing a charge, they are not in the same building, and the paperwork does not always shout about the difference.

50 Eagle Street West, L3Y 6B1, is the Newmarket Courthouse. The province lists criminal, criminal youth, the Crown Attorney's Office, civil, divisional, enforcement, family, small claims and the Victim and Witness Assistance Program at that address.

17150 Yonge Street, L3Y 8V3, is York Region's provincial offences court. It is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the published numbers are 905-898-0425 and 1-877-331-3309.

The split is not by seriousness. It is by statute. A charge under the Criminal Code goes to Eagle Street. A charge under the Highway Traffic Act, a municipal by-law or most other provincial statutes is a provincial offence and goes to Yonge Street. That produces some odd pairings on the same stretch of road on the same night. Impaired driving is a Criminal Code offence, so it is an Eagle Street matter. So is dangerous driving. Careless driving under the Highway Traffic Act is a provincial offence, so it is a Yonge Street matter.

The consequences differ as sharply as the addresses do. A Criminal Code conviction creates a criminal record and everything that follows from one, including travel and employment screening problems that can last for years. A provincial offence conviction does not create a criminal record, but it can carry demerit points, licence consequences, insurance consequences and, on some charges, a serious fine. Treating a provincial offence as trivial because it is not criminal is a common and expensive mistake.

At the doors of 50 Eagle Street West, the hours nobody warns you about

The court offices at this courthouse run Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The counter does not. Counter service is published as 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. That is an office open for eight and a half hours with a public counter open for four of them, split by a three hour gap in the middle of the day. Arrive at 11:15 to file something or pay something and you are waiting until two o'clock, or coming back tomorrow.

The direct lines are published by the province and are worth writing down before you leave the house. Criminal and criminal youth matters are 905-853-4801. Civil, divisional, enforcement, family and small claims all run through 905-853-4809. The Crown Attorney's Office is 905-853-4800. The Victim and Witness Assistance Program is 905-853-4818. The courthouse general contact published by the Ontario Court of Justice is 905-853-4811.

Payment at this courthouse is accepted by Visa or Mastercard, Interac debit, cash, cheque or money order. French language services are available at this location both over the phone and at the counter, which is a real service and not a formality. The courthouse also publishes an accessibility coordinator. If you need a disability accommodation for a proceeding, ask as early as you can and be ready with the court address, the court file number, the date and time of the proceeding, and the type of accommodation you need. If you do not have all of that yet, ask anyway.

All of the above is published on the province's own listing for this courthouse and is worth checking on the morning you travel, because hours are the thing that changes quietly. The listing sits at ontario.ca.

One building, two courts, and which one you are in changes almost everything

The Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice both sit at 50 Eagle Street West. Under one roof does not mean interchangeable. The two courts run different procedures, different scheduling systems and different expectations, and which one holds your file shapes how long the case takes and what your options are.

Most criminal cases start in the Ontario Court of Justice and most finish there. Summary conviction matters stay there. For many indictable charges the accused gets to choose: trial by an Ontario Court of Justice judge, trial by a Superior Court judge sitting alone, or trial by a Superior Court judge and jury. A short list of the most serious offences must be tried in the Superior Court, and another short list falls within the absolute jurisdiction of the Ontario Court of Justice with no election at all.

The Newmarket-specific point is a small mercy. Moving your case up a level does not move your case out of town. The parking is the same, the doors are the same, the security line is the same. What changes is the courtroom, the timetable and the rules you are operating under. That is unusual. In a lot of Ontario communities an election to the Superior Court means a different city.

The choice is rarely obvious and it is almost never about which building feels friendlier. It turns on the strength of the Crown's case, whether there are live legal issues worth arguing before a judge alone, how a jury is likely to hear the allegation, and how long you are prepared for the matter to run. Assault charges are the clearest everyday example, because the Crown's own election between summary and indictable procedure changes the ceiling on your exposure before you have made a single decision of your own.

What the Superior Court actually runs here, including an appeal most people do not know they have

The Superior Court publishes its Newmarket criminal scheduling as seven specific event types, and the list is more revealing than it looks. It covers trials, judicial pre-trials, bail hearings and reviews, 90-day detention review hearings, criminal applications and motions, assignment court, and summary conviction appeals. Every one of them is scheduled through Newmarket.SCJ.TC@ontario.ca or 905-853-4823 extension 6.

Two of those seven deserve more attention than they usually get.

The first is the 90-day detention review. If someone is held in custody awaiting trial, the law builds in a statutory review of that detention rather than leaving it to somebody remembering to ask. It is heard here, in this building. Nobody should be sitting in custody assuming that nothing can happen until the trial date arrives.

The second is the summary conviction appeal. If you are convicted or sentenced on a summary matter in the Ontario Court of Justice, the appeal is heard in the Superior Court, and in Newmarket the Superior Court is upstairs from the court that convicted you. Most people assume an appeal means Toronto and a different world. On a summary matter out of this courthouse, it often means the same address with a different judge and a much tighter set of rules about what can be argued and when.

Bail reviews also sit on that list. If a justice orders detention, the review of that order is a Superior Court proceeding, which is one of the reasons the two levels of court matter to somebody in custody long before any trial is scheduled. For the mechanics of release and detention generally, see our page on bail across Ontario. Charges that commonly produce a Superior Court election, including sexual offence allegations, are the ones where these scheduling routes get used most.

The full scheduling table is published by the Court at ontariocourts.ca.

Family law in the same building, and what happens when both files are open

This page covers family work as well as criminal work, and in Newmarket that is not a marketing convenience. It is a description of one building.

The Superior Court publishes a full family scheduling table for Newmarket. It covers short motions, long motions, case conferences and settlement conferences, trial scheduling conferences, exit pre-trials, trials, judicial dispute resolutions and dispute resolution officer conferences. All of it routes through Newmarket.SCJ.TC@ontario.ca or 905-853-4823. The province separately lists family at 50 Eagle Street West on 905-853-4809, and small claims at the same address on the same number or at NewmarketSCCourts@ontario.ca.

The reason this matters to a criminal client is timing. A domestic allegation and a separation very often arrive in the same month, sometimes in the same week, occasionally on the same night. The two proceedings then run on separate tracks with separate rules, separate disclosure obligations and separate judges, and they can contradict each other. A release condition drafted quickly in a bail court can cut straight across a parenting arrangement. A family court order about parenting time does not override a criminal release order, and an accused person who assumes it does can end up charged again for breaching a condition they thought had been superseded.

Ontario does run one court designed to solve exactly that collision. The Integrated Domestic Violence Court hears a domestic criminal charge and a family separation together before a single judge, and the Ontario Court of Justice describes it as the first and only court of its kind in Canada. It opened in 2011 at the 311 Jarvis Street courthouse. It is only available where the family case is at 47 Sheppard Avenue East or 311 Jarvis Street and the criminal case is at 10 Armoury Street in Toronto. A Newmarket file does not qualify. That is not a criticism of this courthouse. It is a planning fact: in Newmarket, keeping a bail order and a parenting order from contradicting each other is work that counsel has to do deliberately, because no judge is doing it automatically.

There is a sentencing dimension too. Section 718.2(a)(ii) of the Criminal Code makes evidence that an offender abused an intimate partner or a member of the victim's or the offender's family a deemed aggravating circumstance. That is national law, not a local practice, and it is one of the reasons domestic files are rarely as simple as the allegation makes them sound. Our broader material on domestic violence charges in Canada and on family law goes further into how the two sides interact.

Inside the daily list, and why the day is split between counsel and everybody else

Courtroom 201 at Newmarket runs virtual case management on a published tiered schedule, and the tiers tell you something honest about how your day will go. The list opens at 9:00 a.m. with counsel matters. There is a morning recess at 10:30. At 10:45 the court takes self-represented accused and continuing counsel matters. Recess again at 11:45, the same mix at 12:00, lunch recess at 1:00, the same mix again at 2:00, an afternoon recess at 3:00, and a final call at 3:15.

That is not the only room. Courtroom 106 has its own published counsel sign-up sheet. A courtroom listed as JCMC runs Monday to Friday at 9:00 a.m. for counsel matters and 2:15 p.m. for self-represented matters. There is a dedicated plea court for out of custody accused. And there is a court that sits on the Monday one week and two weeks before trial, tiered by the date of the trial or preliminary inquiry, at 9 a.m. in the first of those weeks and 10:30 a.m. in the second.

The sign-up sheets are the part most people never hear about. The Criminal Lawyers Association and the Crown's office maintain virtual counsel sign-up sheets for the Newmarket virtual case management courts, so that counsel matters get called in an orderly sequence. Lawyers put their names on a list. If you are representing yourself, you sit in the tier that gets reached after that list has been worked through. That is the structural reason unrepresented people lose entire days to appearances that take ninety seconds.

A warning about connection details. The Court publishes meeting coordinates for these virtual courtrooms and it changes them. Do not take a meeting number or a passcode from a law firm page, this one included. Go to the Court's own location page on the morning of your appearance and take the details from there. A stale passcode on a website is worse than no passcode at all, because it makes people stop looking.

Into the bail court, and what the June 2026 practice direction expects before anybody speaks

The Ontario Court of Justice issued a Practice Direction Regarding Bail Hearings that took effect on 1 June 2026. It applies across the province, so it governs the bail court in this building the same way it governs one in Kenora. It is short, it is specific, and it rewards anyone who has read it before walking in.

Section 1.3 says 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, and that this applies to weekday bail courts and to Weekend and Statutory Holiday bail courts alike. Section 2.7 goes further on consent: all proposed consent releases put before the court shall be accommodated the same day.

Section 3.1 sets out what both sides have to state at the very beginning: the onus, the Crown position on detention, which grounds for detention are at issue and why, the Crown position on the appropriate form of release if detention is not being sought, the defence position on form of release, and the defence proposed plan of release. That is six things, before any evidence.

Then the clock. Section 3.5 says 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. Section 3.6 puts consent releases at no longer than 15 minutes. Thirty minutes is not a lot of time to explain a person's housing, employment, family and treatment history to a court that has never met them. Which is the point: the work happens before the courtroom, not in it.

The materials rule pushes in the same direction. Section 2.1 expects a focused record, and says that in many cases the only materials the Crown files will be the accused's criminal record if any, the synopsis or summary of allegations, and copies of any prior release orders. Section 2.3 expects the Crown to provide a bail package to defence counsel in advance so the hearing can actually be prepared.

There is also a defined escape valve. Section 6.1 allows counsel to identify a matter as a Complex Bail Matter where it has two or more of four listed features: two or more proposed sureties where the Crown seeks to cross-examine, a matter requiring an interpreter, a section 524 application with two or more existing release orders, or a specialized prosecution team matter identified as such at the time. A matter accepted as complex becomes eligible for additional court time that will not ordinarily exceed two hours, and section 6.2 says complex hearings are heard the same day they are identified as complex. Note the threshold. One feature is not enough. Two are.

The full text sits at ontariocourts.ca, and our general explainer on bail and bail hearings in Canada covers the underlying law.

Your surety, in the room or on a screen

If somebody has asked you to be a surety, or you are trying to find one, the same practice direction changed the ground under that conversation. Read this section twice.

Section 4.1 says 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. It applies whether the Crown bears the onus or the accused does. Section 4.2 requires all parties to consider and propose alternatives to a surety release where appropriate. A surety is not a default setting and should not be treated as one.

Where a surety is proposed, sections 2.4 and 4.3 expect defence counsel to prepare the surety declaration, share it with the Crown, and file it with the court in advance of the hearing, unless the Crown consents to the court dispensing with it. Section 4.4 expects declarations to be completed, signed and sworn before filing. Where a declaration has been completed but it was not feasible to swear it, the surety may be asked to attend the hearing to confirm the accuracy of its contents on the record under oath, and where attendance is required the surety may attend by audio-video conference unless the presiding judicial officer directs them to attend in person.

That last rule is the one that saves people a workday. A proposed surety living in Aurora or King Township, or anywhere else, may never have to make the drive to Eagle Street at all.

Two more provisions are worth knowing before anyone agrees to stand. Section 4.5 says that where a declaration has been filed, examination in chief and cross-examination of the surety are not expected, and section 4.6 requires the Crown, if it does want to cross-examine, to identify the issues, the purpose and a time estimate. Section 4.8 says sureties should make themselves available at the time of the hearing so that if release is ordered it can be entered into immediately. And section 4.9 allows the judicial officer to dispense with a physical signature on the release order where signing in the court's presence is not feasible, provided the court is satisfied the surety has committed to the obligations including the financial obligation and understands they are bound by the terms either way. Not signing does not mean not bound. Anyone considering standing surety should understand that sentence before they say yes.

The desks closest to the courtroom: Crown, duty counsel, victim and witness assistance

Once you are inside the building, three offices decide a surprising amount of what happens to you, and two of them are not on your side. Knowing which is which saves time and embarrassment.

Provincial prosecutions run through the Crown Attorney's Office for this courthouse, published at 905-853-4800 and VirtualCrownNewmarket@ontario.ca, with a fax line at 905-853-4849. That office handles the great majority of Criminal Code charges. Federal prosecutions are different. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada handles a separate set of matters, and for Newmarket the Ontario Court of Justice publishes a standing agent reachable at info@ghoshlitigation.com or 416-428-2705. The letterhead on your disclosure tells you which prosecuting service you are actually dealing with, and the answer changes who negotiates with you and under what policy.

Duty counsel at this courthouse is reachable at dcc.newmarket@lao.on.ca or 905-836-8580. Legal Aid Ontario publishes what duty counsel can do: give you legal advice, explain your rights and how the court process works, help you negotiate a resolution, help prepare or review your legal documents in some cases, and represent you in court in some cases. Eligibility is income tested. Legal Aid Ontario's published table sets duty counsel eligibility at family income lower than $45,440 with assets lower than $15,000 for a family size of one to four, and family income lower than $50,803 for a family of five or more. If you do not qualify, you can still get legal information and referrals, and legal aid workers can help with administrative appearances such as adjournments.

The limit is real and should be said plainly. Duty counsel is help on the day. It is not a lawyer who carries your file from first appearance to resolution, holds your disclosure, runs a Charter application or prepares a trial. For an appearance where you need an adjournment or advice on a consent release it can be exactly the right thing. For a contested trial it is not designed to be.

The Victim and Witness Assistance Program at this courthouse is 905-853-4818. It exists for victims and witnesses, not for accused people. Accused people phone it every week, so saying it here saves somebody a call and a wait.

In the room: what a sentencing judge has to weigh, whoever you are and wherever you drove from

If a case reaches sentencing, the framework does not change because you are in Newmarket. Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code applies to every sentencing court in Canada, and it is worth reading once in plain form.

Subsection (a) says a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances, and then lists circumstances that shall be deemed aggravating. They include an offence motivated by bias, prejudice or hate, abuse of an intimate partner or a family member, abuse of a person under eighteen, involving a person under eighteen in the offence, abuse of a position of trust or authority, significant impact on the victim considering their age and personal circumstances, an offence against someone providing health services or acting as a first responder, an offence for the benefit of or in association with a criminal organization, a terrorism offence, an offence committed while on a conditional sentence order or on parole or statutory release, impeding someone from obtaining health services, and a violent offence where the offender has been convicted of one or more such offences in the previous five years.

Subsection (b) requires parity with sentences for similar offenders in similar circumstances. Subsection (c) says consecutive sentences should not be unduly long or harsh. Subsection (d) says an offender should not be deprived of liberty if less restrictive sanctions may be appropriate. And subsection (e) reads: all available sanctions, other than imprisonment, that are reasonable in the circumstances and consistent with the harm done to victims or to the community should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders. The section is published at laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

That last subsection produces a question we get asked about this courthouse specifically. The Ontario Court of Justice states that Indigenous Peoples' Courts, also called Gladue Courts, are not available in every courthouse, and that all Canadian courts are required to apply Gladue principles and the relevant Criminal Code sentencing and bail principles regardless of whether a matter is heard in a specialized court or a regular one. On bail the mechanism is section 493.2(b), which requires particular attention to the circumstances of Indigenous accused so that pre-trial detention is not imposed unnecessarily. The Court also explains that Gladue reports are prepared after a finding of guilt, where the Crown seeks a custodial sentence over 90 days and the court orders one.

We do not publish a list of which Ontario courthouses run drug treatment, mental health, community support or Gladue sittings, because no primary source we could check publishes one. If a website tells you with confidence that Newmarket does or does not run a particular specialized court, ask where they read it. The safe and accurate position is the Court's own: the principles apply everywhere, the dedicated sittings do not exist everywhere, and your own counsel can find out what is sitting when it matters to your case.

Back out one ring: York Regional Police 1 District on Harry Walker Parkway South

Work outward from the courthouse and the next building that matters is the police station. York Regional Police publishes 1 District at 429 Harry Walker Parkway South, Newmarket, L3Y 8T3, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service states that 1 District officers serve nearly 200,000 people living in Aurora, East Gwillimbury, King Township and Newmarket, that the district took 24,646 calls for service in 2025, and that it has 225 police officers and 10 civilian professionals.

Two cautions, both drawn from the service's own site and both worth publishing.

First, York Regional Police describes district coverage inconsistently in more than one place on its website. Treat any boundary description, including the one above, as approximate rather than authoritative. If you need to know which district holds your file, the district number printed on your own documents is the answer, not a webpage.

Second, the map link published on the 1 District page points at a different street number from the address printed beside it. The address is 429 Harry Walker Parkway South. Use the address, not the map link, and check it before you drive.

Headquarters is not in this town. York Regional Police publishes its own address as 47 Don Hillock Drive in Aurora. That distinction matters occasionally, because specialised units and records functions do not necessarily sit in the district station nearest to you. For emergencies the number is 9-1-1 and the published non-emergency line is 1-866-876-5423.

The practical consequence of all this is narrow but useful. Disclosure requests, property return and follow-up on an investigation move faster when you are dealing with the right unit at the right address the first time, and the identifiers on your paperwork are what get you there. Financial and document matters in particular tend to sit with specialised investigators rather than a front counter, which is worth knowing if you are facing a fraud allegation. The district page is at yrp.ca.

Back out to Yonge Street: the provincial offences court and the clock that starts on day one

The last ring is the one most people meet first, and the one they most often get wrong. York Region's provincial offences court is Newmarket Court 4960 at 17150 Yonge Street, L3Y 8V3, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., reachable at 905-898-0425 or 1-877-331-3309. The Region states that its Provincial Offences Act early resolution meetings, hearings and trials are conducted either online or in person in Newmarket.

Disclosure is a right here too, not a courtesy. You are entitled to the officer's notes and any other available evidence relevant to the charge. Once it is ready, the prosecution office sends it to the email address you gave on the request form, so a typo on that form costs you weeks. For an early resolution meeting with the prosecutor, only the officer's notes are provided, which is worth knowing before you walk into that meeting expecting a file.

Now the timing traps, both published by the Region and both counterintuitive. If you were involved in a motor vehicle accident and received a Part 1 Summons on Form 3, you are asked to wait at least two weeks after the offence date before requesting disclosure. If you received a Part III Summons on Form 104 or Form 106, the wait is at least four weeks. Requesting on day one does not move you up a queue. Separately, on a trial request you need a trial date already scheduled before you can request disclosure at all, which catches out people who assume the two steps happen together.

Missing a date is where provincial offences turn expensive. If you miss your trial on a Part I or Part III charge, a justice of the peace may convict you in your absence. You can apply to reopen, and the application is reviewed by a justice of the peace who considers the reasons for the failure to appear, but the Region is explicit that a reopening may or may not be granted. If you know in advance that you cannot attend, the route is a Notice of Motion asking to change the trial date, and the court may grant it or refuse it. Neither of these is a formality.

Two rights worth exercising. You may request an English, French or bilingual trial, and you may request an interpreter before your trial date. Both are easier to arrange in advance than on the morning. The Region's page on preparing for a trial and requesting disclosure is at york.ca.

Questions people ask before they drive to Newmarket

Where is the Newmarket courthouse and what is heard there?

The Newmarket Courthouse is at 50 Eagle Street West, Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 6B1. The province lists criminal, criminal youth, the Crown Attorney's Office, civil, divisional, enforcement, family, small claims and the Victim and Witness Assistance Program at that address. Both the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice sit in the building, so a case can move up a level without moving to another town.

I was charged somewhere else in York Region. Why does my paperwork say Newmarket?

Because Newmarket is a destination courthouse for a large amount of the region's court work, and because York Region runs a single provincial offences court, listed as Newmarket Court 4960, for the whole region. Your own documents are the authority on which building and courtroom you have been given. Read the release order, appearance notice, summons or notice of trial rather than relying on any website.

Does Kazandji Law have an office in Newmarket?

No. The firm has four offices: Toronto at 180 John Street Unit 320, Thornhill at 7191 Yonge Street Suite 310, North York at 70 Forest Manor Road Unit 4B, and Oakville at 466 Speers Road. Thornhill is the closest and it does sit inside York Region, which is worth saying honestly, but it is a different municipality. A Law Society of Ontario licence covers the entire province and there is no separate Newmarket qualification.

What are the counter hours at 50 Eagle Street West?

The court offices run Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the public counter is only open 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. There is a three hour gap in the middle of the day when nobody is served at the counter. Plan filings and payments around that gap, and check the province's listing on the morning you travel.

Is my case in the Ontario Court of Justice or the Superior Court?

Most criminal cases start and finish in the Ontario Court of Justice, and summary conviction matters stay there. For many indictable charges the accused elects between an Ontario Court of Justice judge, a Superior Court judge alone, or a Superior Court judge and jury. A small group of the most serious offences must be tried in the Superior Court, and another group falls within the absolute jurisdiction of the Ontario Court of Justice.

If I am convicted of a summary offence in Newmarket, where does the appeal go?

To the Superior Court of Justice, which sits in the same building. Summary conviction appeals appear on the Superior Court's published Newmarket criminal scheduling list alongside trials, judicial pre-trials, bail hearings and reviews, 90-day detention review hearings, criminal applications and motions, and assignment court. Scheduling runs through Newmarket.SCJ.TC@ontario.ca or 905-853-4823 extension 6.

If I am arrested on a weekend or a holiday, when is my bail hearing?

The Ontario Court of Justice practice direction that took effect on 1 June 2026 says 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, and states that this applies to weekend and statutory holiday bail courts as well as weekday bail courts. It also says all proposed consent releases put before the court shall be accommodated the same day.

Do I definitely need a surety, and does my surety have to come to Newmarket?

Not automatically. The practice direction says 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, and requires all parties to consider and propose alternatives where appropriate. Where a surety is required to attend, they may attend by audio-video conference unless the presiding judicial officer directs them to attend in person.

I have a family case and a criminal charge at the same time. Are they heard together?

Not in Newmarket. Ontario's Integrated Domestic Violence Court hears a domestic charge and a family separation before one judge, but it is only open to people whose family case is at 47 Sheppard Avenue East or 311 Jarvis Street and whose criminal case is at 10 Armoury Street in Toronto. In Newmarket the two files run separately, so keeping a bail condition from contradicting a parenting order is deliberate work rather than something a judge does automatically.

Where do I deal with a speeding ticket I got in York Region?

At York Region's provincial offences court, Newmarket Court 4960, at 17150 Yonge Street, Newmarket L3Y 8V3, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and reachable at 905-898-0425 or 1-877-331-3309. The Region states that its Provincial Offences Act early resolution meetings, hearings and trials are conducted either online or in person in Newmarket. That is a different address from the criminal courthouse on Eagle Street West.

How long do I have to wait before requesting disclosure on a provincial offence?

It depends on the form you were served with. York Region asks you to wait at least two weeks after the offence date if you were in a motor vehicle accident and received a Part 1 Summons on Form 3, and at least four weeks if you received a Part III Summons on Form 104 or Form 106. On a trial request you must already have a trial date scheduled before you can request disclosure.

Does Newmarket have a drug treatment court, a mental health court or a Gladue court?

No primary source we could check publishes a list of which Ontario courthouses run those sittings, so anyone who answers that question with confidence should be asked for their source. What the Ontario Court of Justice does state is that Indigenous Peoples' Courts are not available in every courthouse and that all Canadian courts must apply Gladue principles and the relevant Criminal Code sentencing and bail principles regardless.

Kazandji Law works at the Newmarket Courthouse and at the York Region provincial offences court without claiming a Newmarket address, because there is not one to claim. The firm practises from Toronto at 180 John Street Unit 320, Thornhill at 7191 Yonge Street Suite 310, North York at 70 Forest Manor Road Unit 4B, and Oakville at 466 Speers Road. Toronto and North York are reachable on 647-588-3234, Thornhill is on 647-697-5975 and Oakville is on 647-696-1468. If you are facing a criminal charge, a provincial offence or a family matter connected to this courthouse, the useful first step is a conversation about what your paperwork actually says and what the realistic outcomes are. You can reach the firm through the contact page. Bring the documents. They answer half the questions before anyone has to guess.