Robert Goddard, Barrister & Solicitor

Robert F. Goddard, Barrister & Solicitor – With over 35 years of front-line advocacy, now focused on parole. Experienced. Dedicated. Effective.

Parole Hearings

After 34 years as a lawyer, I am narrowing my law practice to parole hearings only. As I will explain below, this is where I began.

In addition to defending clients with criminal charges and arguing criminal appeals, my practice has always included parole hearings. For 20 years (1994 to 2014), I also taught correctional law at Queen’s University’s Faculty of Law, instructing and mentoring students. These have all been incredibly rewarding experiences.

But advocacy before the parole board is where my legal career actually started. As a second-year law student in 1988, I assisted at my first hearing at Kingston Penitentiary (before it became a museum). In those days, you entered through a large wooden front door, which was set back from a barrier of bars. You reached through, grabbed a knocker, and banged to get in. In my case, the purpose was to help others out.

Parole hearings are unique. The context always includes answering for serious past mistakes. For the applicant, the challenge is to have the board see who you are now, despite who you once were.

To succeed, a parole applicant must do a lot of very hard work – soul searching – but also the acquisition of critical life skills.

Parole tribunals are significantly different than trial courts. I thoroughly prepare my clients for this specialized type of hearing, ensuring that they make their best impression. At the hearing itself, I am the client’s watchdog, insisting that the process be fair.

With my final submissions, I make sure that the board understands that my client has learned from past mistakes and is ready to begin a new and better life

Seeing a client’s success is extraordinarily rewarding. I look forward to assisting you or your loved one.

My Background

I graduated from Queen’s University Faculty of Law in 1990. My articling year was at the Crown Law Office – Criminal, which is the appeals division of the Office of the Attorney General – Ontario. I was called to the bar in 1992, and I opened a criminal law practice in Toronto that same year. For the next two years, I defended criminally charged clients, including conducting bail hearings, and representation on appeal.

I returned to Kingston in 1994, when I accepted a position with Queen’s University’s Correctional Law Project, a legal aid clinic at the Faculty of Law (now known as Queen’s Prison Law Clinic). With the help of law students, the clinic provides representation and legal assistance to penitentiary inmates. In addition to teaching and supervising Queen’s law students, I maintained my own heavy caseload, personally representing clients with a variety of matters, including more than 50 Court of Appeal cases, and hundreds of parole hearings.

In 2015, after two decades at Queen’s University, I returned to private practice. My focus remained criminal defence and parole hearings. This included appeals and Ontario Review Board hearings. Starting 2015, I also began representing clients before the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board, a provincial tribunal that hears challenges to involuntary hospitalization, or a finding that a patient is incapable of making their own treatment or property decisions.

As a respected professional, I have presented at judges’ education conferences and continuing legal education programs for fellow lawyers.

In addition to membership with the Law Society of Ontario, I am past treasurer of the Kingston Criminal Defence Lawyers’ Association, and a longstanding member of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association.

All contacts are confidential, and, if suitable, a 15-minute telephone discussion can be arranged, free of charge. Some Legal Aid retainers are accepted.

Robert F. Goddard, Barrister & Solicitor – With over 35 years of front-line advocacy, now focused on parole. Experienced. Dedicated. Effective.

Parole Hearings

My Background

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Robert F. Goddard,
Barrister & Solicitor