Watch: 3 Tips if You’ve Been Falsely Accused of A Crime

Calgary Criminal Defence Lawyer Charles Fair, the founder of Fair Legal, discusses three tips if you have been falsely accused of a crime. We are your champions for justice when life gets messy.

Watch: 3 Tips If You've Been Falsely Accused of a Crime in Alberta

Transcript

Hi, my name is Charles Fair, and I am a family law and criminal defense lawyer in Calgary, Alberta.

I'm here to talk to you today about the impact that false accusations can have on your family law
case and on your life.

When you are facing criminal charges in the middle of a family law case, it can be really devastating. Family law is hard enough as it is, getting things sorted out with your family, with your kids, your finances, all that can be very difficult with criminal charges, and now you've got a really messy situation.

I'm here today to give you 3 tips on how you can deal with this.

Tip number one, get legal representation as soon as possible.

When you're approached by the police to say that they are investigating a situation, you need to tell them that you need to get legal advice. That is very important.

Get legal advice from a lawyer who understands not just the criminal law system but also the family law system. There are things that can happen at the very, very beginning of the criminal proceedings that can have a profound impact on your family law case and make things much more difficult for you down the road. So early intervention with good legal advice and representation is very important.

Tip number two, when you've got a lawyer, they're going to give you some advice. Follow that advice very carefully.

On the criminal side, if the lawyer's advice is to not answer any questions and not talk to the police,
then follow that advice, no matter how nice the police are, no matter how convincing that they are,
when they say that they are there to help but they’ll only get your side of the story.

If your lawyer has said don't answer any questions, then don't answer any questions. Simple as that.
On the family law side, if the advice is as to how to communicate with your soon-to-be-ex,
like doing it via text message, or email, then just follow your lawyer's advice.

• Stick to what the communications are that are allowed or not allowed.
• Don't throw in, you know, a nice I love you card when you're returning the kids or something like that. It's just not going to help, okay?

So follow your advice very carefully that you get.

The third tip, I know this is a really frustrating situation. There's nothing more frustrating than false accusations. So you just have to trust me and stay calm throughout.

You just simply cannot control what other people are going to think or feel or say or do. What you can do is control what your reactions are, what your choices are. That's the important thing.

And have realistic expectations about how this is going to turn out. Work with your lawyer. The chaos will eventually come to an end. You've just got to stay calm throughout.

I know facing false accusations can be really, really tough. And if you find yourself in this situation,
click the link below, schedule a discovery call, we can help.

If you know somebody who's facing false accusations, share this video with them. We can help.

Contact Calgary Criminal Defence Lawyer Charles Fair

Call Fair Legal at 1 (403) 239-2249 to schedule a confidential meeting with a member of our legal team.