At Shadley Bien-Aimé, we have a wealth of experience representing individuals charged with criminal offences both in first instance and on appeal.

We have dealt with the full range of criminal offences, including:

–      driving offences (e.g. dangerous driving, impaired driving)

–      drug offences (e.g. possession, production, trafficking)

–      assaults (e.g. sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault)  

–      homicides (e.g. murder, manslaughter, and “causing death” offences) and

–      white-collar crimes.

We have plead cases both before judge-alone and judge and jury, in both official languages. Regardless of the nature, excellence remains our only standard. 

At Shadley Bien-Aimé, we regularly defend individuals and corporations charged with crimes arising from business activities. We have successfully represented clients facing allegations of fraud, breach of trust, corruption, money laundering, securities violations and other related economic crimes. This is inclusive of cases involving multiple accused and a large volume of evidence.

In this area, we strive to make the complicated simple in order to put all the odds on your side and secure the best results in the circumstances of your case.

Government investigations can act as a truly disruptive force on business activities and the life of their individual targets. Government entities have broad regulatory inquiry powers and can often compel individuals to be examined and produce documents. That is the reason why you need legal advisors by your side who have the experience necessary to quickly assess the risks related to an investigation and implement the appropriate strategy to face it.

At Shadley Bien-Aimé, we have represented targets and witnesses at all stages of investigations conducted by a wide variety of regulatory agencies, provincial and federal. This has included representing parties in the context of resulting quasi-criminal or administrative enforcement proceedings, if necessary.

Examples of industries in which we have been involved include healthcare, environmental protection, customs, financial institutions, anti-money laundering, and securities, amongst others.

At Shadley Bien-Aimé, we regularly defend licensed professionals investigated or prosecuted by their professional orders. In the past, we have represented lawyers, accountants, investment professionals, notaries, architects, and engineers, amongst others. We have also represented individuals and corporations prosecuted by professional orders for illegal practice of a regulated profession.

Being part of a professional order ourselves, we understand the stakes involved when one’s licence and/or professional reputation are at issue. You can be assured that we will defend them as if they were our own.

At Shadley Bien-Aimé, it is our daily business to dissect, analyse, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of evidence gathered by law enforcement and the legitimacy of the investigative steps taken to do so.

When you suspect wrongdoing within your business or entourage, you may want to confirm those suspicions and ascertain the scope of wrongdoing prior to deciding what next steps to take. You may decide to deal with the matter internally or to alert the authorities, depending on what is in your best interests. For example, business entities may wish to report their findings to law enforcement in order to benefit from a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) or corporate immunity programs.

We can assist you in making the right decision by privately investigating the allegations of wrongdoing and suggesting various avenues of solution based on our findings. Where the decision is to alert the authorities, we can assist you in putting together the required statements and exhibits, liaise with the authorities and, where the findings engage your business’ liability, negotiate a satisfactory resolution.

At Shadley Bien-Aimé we represent individuals and corporations targeted or potentially affected by asset forfeiture actions. This includes criminal, civil and administrative forfeitures.

Past cases include defending individuals facing seizure by the Canada Border Services Agency of sums of money that they failed to declare when entering the country and others facing the civil seizure of their assets as proceeds or instruments of crime.