Crime

In a nutshell

Criminal solicitors represent defendants in cases brought before the UK’s criminal courts. Lesser offences are commonly dealt with exclusively by solicitors in the Magistrates’ Courts; more serious charges go to the Crown Courts, which are essentially still the domain of barristers, not least because most defendants still prefer this. Everyday crime is the staple for most solicitors – theft, assault, drugs and driving offences. Fraud is the preserve of a more limited number of firms, and the cases require a different approach from, say, crimes of violence. Criminal practice is busy, often frantic, with a hectic schedule of visits to police stations, prisons and Magistrates’ Courts meaning plenty of face-to-face client contact and advocacy.

What lawyers do

• Attend police stations to interview and advise people in police custody.
• Visit prisons to see clients on remand.
• Prepare the client’s defence using medical and social workers’ reports, liaising with witnesses, probation officers, the CPS and others.
• Attend conferences with counsel (ie barristers).
• Represent defendants at trial or brief barristers to do so.
• Represent clients at sentencing hearings, explaining any mitigating facts.
• Fraud solicitors need a head for business as they deal with a considerable volume of paperwork and financial analysis.

The realities of the job

• Hours are long and can disrupt your personal life. Lawyers who are accredited to work as Duty Solicitors will be on a rota and can be called to a police station at any time of the day or night.
• Confidence is essential. Without it you’re doomed.
• In general crime you’ll have a large caseload with a fast turnaround, meaning plenty of advocacy.
• The work is driven by the procedural rules and timetable of the court. Even so, recent figures show that almost a quarter of trials do not proceed on the appointed day.
• Your efforts can mean the difference between a person’s liberty or incarceration. You have to be detail-conscious and constantly vigilant.
• You’ll encounter horrible situations and difficult or distressed people. Murderers, rapists, drug dealers, conmen, paedophiles – if you have the ability to look beyond the labels and see these people as clients deserving of your best efforts then you’ve picked the right job.
• It can be disheartening to see clients repeat the same poor choices, returning to court again and again.
• Public funding of criminal defence means there’s a good helping of bureaucracy. It also means you’ll never be a millionaire.
• Trainees in fraud find the early years provide minimal advocacy and masses of trawling through warehouses full of documents. Caseloads are smaller but cases can run for years.

Current issues

• Huge changes in legal aid funding are ongoing and many firms that have previously excelled in crime are moving out of the area entirely or no longer accept publicly funded clients. Firms affected by the cuts (or those looking to pre-empt financial difficulties) are either abandoning legal aid altogether, merging, or shifting their focus from the more high-street criminal cases to fraud and the more serious financial crimes.
• After failed attempts by Labour to rein in a ballooning legal aid budget, the coalition government plans to cut £350m from legal aid’s £2.2bn budget, which will remove entire practice areas – such as employment and immigration – from the scheme. Currently, half of all criminal legal aid spending is spent on about 1% of cases and the UK has one of the most expensive legal aid schemes in the world. Read more about legal aid on our website.
• Past Ministry of Justice reforms aimed at addressing legal aid budgeting have been met with disapproval and led to extraordinary consequences. Recently, a defendant escaped confiscation proceedings because she was unable to find an advocate willing to accept the legal aid rates available for her representation.
• There are proposals to allow ‘associate prosecutors’– individuals with no legal qualifications – to conduct Magistrates’ Court trials. Many fear that this cost-saving measure is a step too far.
• When the Legal Services Commission (LSC) introduced a compulsory quality mark for firms wishing to undertake legal aid work in 2000, the number of legal aid firms dropped dramatically, and has continued to fall. In 2011 there were around 1,700 criminal legal aid firms, compared to over 2,900 in 2000.
• A change in police station procedures means the police are cautioning more and charging less in an effort to meet government targets. This obviously has a knock-on effect on the number of available cases. The number of police officers dropped by more than 2,500 in 2010, with further cuts predicted as funding is cut, though the riots and looting in London and around the country when we went to press has led to calls for the cuts to be halted, if not dramatically reversed.
• The nationwide rollout of the Legal Services Commission’s Criminal Defence Service Direct is affecting the amount of work available for solicitors. The CDS now provides telephone advice to those detained at police stations for less serious matters – eg drink driving, non-imprisonable offences, breach of bail and warrants.
• More fraud cases are popping up, and with authorities pushing for criminal charges for competition regulation violations, corporations are facing greater criminal liability. This kind of work tends to go to the firms that have traditionally handled white-collar crime. The Bribery Act 2010, which came into force in July 2011, aims to reform the criminal law to provide a comprehensive scheme of bribery offences in the UK or overseas. Companies are now liable for corruption among staff and – for the first time – associated third parties, so white-collar crime lawyers have been busy advising companies on anti-corruption policies and procedures.
• Check out www.clsa.co.uk for other news and discussion on major developments in criminal practice.

Read our True Pictures on:

- Foot Anstey (South West)

- Forbes (Lancashire, Leeds)

- Higgs & Sons (Black Country)

- Kingsley Napley (London)

And for criminal fraud: 

- Dechert

- DLA Piper

- Irwin Mitchell

- Pannone

- Simmons & Simmons