Comment by giantg2
My state, like many, defines a speedy criminal trail as the trial commencing any time within 5 years of being charged...
My state, like many, defines a speedy criminal trail as the trial commencing any time within 5 years of being charged...
Only applies when it’s the state vs you. Whether a crime or a parking ticket (the real kind, not the extrajudicial “administrative penalties” they’re all moving to)
If you want to sue someone in Canada, it can still take years.
The definition isn't that long. The definition is usually something like 1 year at the state level. But then the rules allow large chunks of time to be excluded from that 1 year requirement, like time waiting for a court doctor to declare someone competent, finding a witness, etc. In all my jury duty selections, the crime was committed 2-3 years before the trial commenced.
In Canada there was a big court case in 2016 over the civil right of "right to a speedy trial" where the courts said it had to be within 18 months for charges in provincial courts, which is where most crime ends up. During COVID there was a giant backlog of trials created and a criminal lawyer I know told me half of her clients in recent years got their cases stayed (thrown out) because of this backlog. This apparently happened all over the country and included tons people who were charged for violent crimes.
https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/16057/i...