Direct: 587-525-6755
Email: acorbett@bottoslaw.ca
Mr. Corbett is an experienced criminal lawyer practicing exclusively for the defence. He is licensed to practice in both Alberta, and the Northwest Territories, although he also represents clients in British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Throughout his career, Mr. Corbett has represented clients charged with a wide variety of Criminal offences, from minor tickets to extremely serious charges. These charges include Murder, Fraud, Impaired Driving, Drug Offences, Youth Charges, and in particular, Sexual Assault.
Experience
Mr. Corbett has experience with both Judge Alone and Judge and Jury trials, and has appeared in the Provincial Court of Alberta, (now titled the Alberta Court of Justice), the Court of King’s Bench (formerly the Court of Queen’s Bench), the Territorial and Supreme Courts of the Northwest Territories, the Ontario Court of Justice, the British Columbia Provincial Court, the Court of Appeal of Alberta and the Supreme Court of Canada.
He has extensive experience with the particular intricacies of jury trials, having conducted a considerable number of successful jury trial defences. Mr. Corbett has never had a jury convict his client of sexual assault. He specializes particularly in the defence of those accused of sexual offences, and the defence of young offenders. He has also regularly defended members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
He is a member of specialized Legal Aid panels, including the Complainant Advice Panel, the Youth Panel, and the Major Crimes Panel. His practice is solely focused on Criminal Law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mr. Corbett also holds unique experience and knowledge in difficult cases involving the internet, dark web, cryptocurrency and other emerging Internet crimes. He has represented individuals in a number of reported court decisions regarding novel legal issues particularly involving search and seizure law under s. 8 of the Charter. A selection of reported cases by Mr. Corbett is below.
He graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. After completion of his articles at another law firm, he joined Bottos Law Group in August 2015 and has worked here ever since.
Volunteer Work
While at the University of Alberta, Mr. Corbett focused on criminal law and the law of evidence. Mr. Corbett undertook a number of additional projects centred on Criminal Law. He worked at the Youth Criminal Defence Office in 2013 and took part in the Sopinka Criminal Trial Moot in Vancouver, BC in 2014.
Mr. Corbett was active in the volunteer organization, Student Legal Services, which helps members of the community charged with criminal offences. During that time, he served as a Dayleader, helping individuals in 2012, and as the organization’s Executive Coordinator in 2013. He now serves on the Board of Directors for that organization, and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Prison Justice Society.
Mr. Corbett co-teaches Sentencing at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, and has taught classes in Criminal Law and Advanced Evidence. He has also taught courses for Articling Students from the Law Society of Alberta, and advanced seminars for other criminal defence lawyers.
Awards and Memberships
Mr. Corbett received a number of awards throughout his academic career, and was honoured with the Emery Jamieson LLP Award for his volunteer work with SLS in November 2013. He was also the recipient of the Sylvester C McGoey Criminal Law Memorial Bursary for 2014.
In 2019 he was honoured by the Criminal Trial Lawyer’s Association as the recipient of the “Top Gunn” award for outstanding work by a criminal defence lawyer of 5 years experience.
Mr. Corbett is a member of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, the Law Society of Alberta, and the Law Society of the Northwest Territories. He travels regularly to the Northwest Territories for Legal Aid and private clients.
He is willing to speak with you anytime and is happy to meet for an initial consultation free of charge.
Select Reported Cases:
- R v Chanyi, 2016 ABPC 7
- Client charged with obstruction of a police officer, and refusal to provide a breath sample. Court held that the police were not entitled to arrest the Accused, as he had not committed a criminal offence, and therefore the Accused did not obstruct the police, nor was the breath demand lawful. Client acquitted of both charges.
- R v Marek, 2016 ABQB 18
- Austin Corbett acted as amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist Mr. Mark Marek in his defence of his website www.bestgore.com on a charge of public obscenity, arising from an investigation into the posting of the infamous “1 Lunatic, 1 Icepick” video created by Luka Magnotta. The case involved a number of searches, including of Mr. Marek’s laptop. The search was challenged by the defence as being over-broad and unreasonable.
- The Court found that the search of Mr. Marek’s devices scooped up more than a decade’s worth of personal information and was therefore over-broad and unreasonable. In the end, the Court excluded the evidence found from the trial of this matter, significantly advancing the state of the law in Alberta on the topic of forensic computer searches.
- R v Ozorka, 2018 ABPC 162
- In a widely cited decision, the Crown made an application for the complainant of a sexual assault allegation to testify remotely from Ontario. The basis for the application was that the complainant felt that she was unable to travel to Alberta because of her PTSD.
- Mr. Corbett for the defence vigorously opposed the application. In the end, it was granted, but not without significant safeguards in place to protect the fair trial rights of the Accused. After issues with the complainant evidence arose, including her use of material not shown on her screen, the matter resolved.
- This decision has been repeatedly relied upon by other courts facing a similar Crown application.