Court Site Study of Adult Unrepresented Accused in the Provincial Criminal Courts (Part 2: Site Reports)

Chapter 4: Brandon , Manitoba (continued)

4.7 Overall conclusions

4.7.1 Key overall findings

Our key findings with respect to the key questions raised by the study include:

With respect to frequency of self-representation

With respect to impact

4.7.2 General reasons for current unrepresented accused situation

As noted earlier, key informants were of the view that unrepresented accused were a rare phenomenon in Brandon, except at trial.  Interviewees who were able to speculate on the subject agreed that the following were the key reasons for the infrequency of unrepresented accused in Brandon: 

4.7.3 Solutions suggested by those interviewed in Brandon

It has been noted earlier that all key groups in the Brandon Court seem to support continuing efforts to improve the operations of their court.  Given the steps already taken in the Brandon court, and the relatively low number of unrepresented accused in the court (compared to other sites in the study), those interviewed had difficulty identifying steps to be taken to improve the situation further – other than to suggest an increase in resources to continue similar policies and practices.

However, concerns were raised that the gains that had been made might be threatened by the possibility of the court losing certain key personnel – and the possibility that their positions might not be filled quickly.