Our client picked one of our lawyers off the list in police cells. Months earlier, he had been charged with assaulting his girlfriend and released on bail conditions that prohibited him from contacting that girlfriend - he had a trial scheduled, but no lawyer. A few months later, he had been charged with breaching his bail conditions by hanging out with his ex-girlfriend - he had a trial scheduled in this matter, too, but had no lawyer for it. A few hours before calling our firm, he had been arrested and charged with failing to attend his court dates in the other matters.
The following day, we got our client out on bail. We helped him apply for government funding so that he could hire us as his lawyers. Over the next year, we represented him in all of his cases.
First, through negotiation, we persuaded the prosecution to simply drop the charge of failing to appear in court. Second, a few days before the assault trial, the prosecution offered to drop those charges in exchange for a "peace bond," whereby he agreed not to contact his now ex-girlfriend for twelve months. Finally, our client pleaded guilty to having breached his bail by hanging out with the ex-girlfriend, but our client was sentenced to a "conditional discharge."
RESULT: One charge was dropped, one charge was dropped with a peace bond, and one charge resulted in a guilty plea and conditional discharge, meaning that our client does not have a permanent criminal record.