Hi everyone,

This is shameful to speak of even anonymously over the internet, but few days ago I was shopping at some store when I had a moment of stupidity - I stole something and I was caught. Police officer came (she was nice) and told me that I will be charged and have to go get fingerprinted and a court date was set, she mentioned that she will ask the court to consider me for an "alternative measure", as this is my first offense (is alternative measure same as "diverted charge"?). She also told me that the first court date is only to set a date for the later hearing, what are the chances of the case being resolved on the first court date?

How much are the court costs in Ontario? And should I get a lawyer for the first hearing? Or the second? Or both? And the store said they will be sending me a bill for their "loss" (I thought securities get paid regardless of whether they catch criminals, and plus they put the stolen goods back, what loss are they talking about?). What's the worst case scenario? What's the best?

I live in Ontario but I have to go back to BC to work during the summer to pay off the school, I really can't afford to stay for the summer or else I can't continue school. I just want to be given a chance to correct my mistakes and do good. Please help me out, I'm barely getting by with my earnings from last summer, I don't think I can afford any lawyer or court costs; I'm really scared I don't know what to do.

ANY help is appreciated, thank you very very much.

You should be able to make a payment arrangement for court fines.
I don't know what the store would be willing to work out with you.
You have to go to court and then you take the class(es) some people say they had to take one others say they had to take two. Then you have to go back to court to basically tell the Judge what you got out of it and then the Judge will make the fines and ruling.
IF you do not get in any trouble you should be eligible to get the record expunged.
You should be done with Court and the classes before summer.

There will be court costs, and in Canada I believe there will be or could be a chanrge from the store to pay them for their costs.
And yes you should have an attorney at every court hearing.

Thank you for your answers... how earlier should I show up at the court to ask for diversion programs and whether I qualify for legal aid, duty counsel etc etc?

Do you have a lawyer he should tell you everything.
I think they discuss all that during your hearing.

I don't have a lawyer my best bet is a duty councel... another thing, this is what was told to me by the officer: call the crown attorney to set up an appointment to see him/her and he/she will tell me what they are going to do to me, and also I can call criminal law lawyers from the yellow pages to ask them what to do. Generally from what I hear is that its usually a slap on the wrist for first timers; I've also read in another post that a girl similar to my situation went to court along with others of the same charge... I thought its always individually tried? And also should I listen to the officer that arrested me?

The officer said she will tell the judge to consider me for alternative measures, what are the chances of me actually getting it?

My court date is apr 11... any chance that I can go back to because before may?

Call the duty counsel and they should tell you everything. The least you would get is the slap on the wrist cause I have seen plenty of people on the internet from Canada that said that was all they got. If not then you will most likely have to do the alternative measures program.

Thank you so much for your reply.

How much should I worry about this? I haven't been able to sleep well for the past few days and couldn't eat anything :(

How much time will the first court appearance be approximately?

Don't worry at all worry never fixed or solved anything.