Criminal question:

My son has just been charged with a serious (indictable) criminal offence and will appear in the Magistrates' court shortly. Until now he has been represented by the duty solicitor. What advice can you give about legal representation? Should we stick with the same firm, or should we look at others? What should we be looking for in a legal firm? How do we decide and what questions should we be asking the firms that we ring? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated as we have no experience of this sort of thing at all.

posted in Criminal | 1 response

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Andrew Morris

Andrew Morris' response

Hello

You should be confident that the firm that was the Duty Solicitor are experienced in dealing with Crown Court Matters. Some larger firms have in house barristers that have extensive experience in dealing with serious crown court matters. Some firms have a smaller caseload and do not deal with as much serious work. Any case that goes to the Crown court would automatically attract Legal Aid although you may have to pay a contribution. It would take a week or two for legal aid to come through. You do not have to remain with the same firm if you do not wish to but if you wish to change, you should do this sooner rather than later.

I hope this helps

Andrew Morris