Daniel Stanton's response

You have not mentioned where you are based, but I will help as best I can.

Most practices dealing with Criminal Law hold a legal aid franchise because there are very few privately-funded clients. You should visit www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk and click on 'find an adviser'. You can then choose to select a particular town and 'Crime' as a specialism.

A search on 'Bournemouth', for example brings up details of 50 firms, generally within a 40-mile radius.

You should be aware that there was a review of legal aid undertaken over the past couple of years, which led to a very large number of firms being unfairly deprived of their legal aid franchise a few months ago and therefore finding themselves unable to carry out criminal work, so there may be less options than are shown. The Law Society brought a successful legal challenge against the Government to try and preserve the legal aid position but it's not yet clear how the verdict will filter through to firms. My own firm fortunately retained its franchise, but I still have concerns about the wider future.

I hope this helps.