What is a joint submission?

A joint submission is when both the Crown and the offender’s lawyer (or duty counsel) agree on the sentence they are asking the judge to give. In most cases, a joint submission will have been agreed to by lawyers in a resolution meeting.

However, even when the lawyers have a joint submission, the judge does not necessarily have to agree with them and can still give a different type or length of sentence. In many cases, the judge will agree with the joint submission, but the judge always makes the final decision on a sentence.