By Jill Sperling

Kamloops lawyer wins Supreme Court of Canada case over joint submissions

Oct 22, 2016 | 10:05 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops lawyer has successfully argued a case that will change how greatly a trial judge is able to deviate from joint submissions.

Micah Rankin saw the need to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada after a judge applied a longer sentence to the subject of a 2013 manslaughter case than what the Crown and defense had agreed upon. 

“I contacted the individual involved and thought I would take a run at going to Ottawa with it,” Rankin said. “In the end they accepted … I thought it was a significant issue and evidently the Supreme Court thought it was a significant issue as well.”

He says the ruling will set a higher threshold for when the judge can depart from a joint submission. 

“That’s important from the point of view of accused persons because when they go and plead guilty, when they give up their constitutional rights to a trial, they want to be assured that they’re going to get something in return from it,” Rankin said. “What the court has said is basically there’s got to be something very wrong before a trial judge can reject a joint submission.”

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Of the six times Rankin has argued before the Supreme Court of Canada he considers this his most significant victory.