Martell Defence

About Martell Defence

Martell Defence is a small Toronto firm focused on criminal appeals and constitutional litigation, run by Carter Martell from an office at 55 University Avenue in the city's Financial District. Martell earned a law degree from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, articled at the Crown Law Office, Criminal, working primarily on criminal appeals, and opened the firm in 2015. The practice covers appeals of criminal convictions and sentences, bail applications pending appeal, appeals of Not Criminally Responsible findings and Ontario Review Board dispositions, Crown appeals, and Charter motions and constitutional challenges arising out of criminal trials, and Martell appears regularly before the Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Martell has also served as intervening counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada, appearing on behalf of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, The Advocates' Society, and the Empowerment Council, Systemic Advocates in Addictions and Mental Health. In the fall of 2021, Martell was co-counsel for the Empowerment Council's intervention in the companion appeals R v Sullivan and R v Chan, and in R v Brown, cases about when the automatism defence is available for violent offences arising from self-induced intoxication. Martell belongs to the Criminal Lawyers' Association, The Advocates' Society, and the Law Society of Ontario, and is listed with Legal Aid Ontario for criminal, extremely serious, and Gladue matters.