Pre-Trial Strategy: Stay Your Trial

To "stay" your trial, you are stopping the judicial process. That is what "stay" means within the legal context: stop everything. You are no longer being prosecuted.

If you stay the trial, all you are doing is stopping the process of you going to trial. You do not receive a verdict. You are not being found innocent. You are not being found guilty. The charge is not withdrawn. Everything just stops.

Remember, you don't want to be found guilty. There is a difference between being found innocent in court and never being found guilty. If the judge finds you innocent or guilty she is giving a verdict. By stopping the process before a verdict, you avoid any verdict. This is what you want, avoiding a guilty verdict.

So what happens to the charge? Nothing, it doesn't go away. Technically the court is giving you the right not to be tried. However, the Crown can appeal the decision to stay your trial. This is extremely rare and almost always unsuccessful.