If you or a loved one has been falsely accused or wrongly convicted then the information contained within this website and further information we supply based on your matter will not benefit anyone fortunate enough to have obtained quality and caring legal representation and, for all practical purposes, even reading our literature would be a waste of time (which would take about an hour out of the readers life).
The answer is not difficult. The solicitor is retained at the police station from a “list” the police hold. You then end up with a “duty solicitor” who in fact may not be a solicitor or a specialist in sexual offences. Then begins the waiting game, “My solicitor never calls me back”. Many defense solicitors believe “less is more” the better off the defense will be. Some evidence can change, some can be destroyed or disappear and the memory of some witnesses can fade, even to the point where they may no longer have credibility.
If you are one of the rare individuals who has a real defence and a competent and caring solicitor and or barrister you may want to refer them to several pages within this website and further information we supply that could well assist them. When selecting anyone to represent you, it is always a matter of Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).
During the time between the accused being arrested and their trial, usually most defense legal aid solicitor’s do very little. In reality, there is very little for them to do. They follow a set of guidelines, they sometimes interview witnesses, they sometimes investigate the case, they wait for trial and then they prepare…sometimes…but it could be to late!
It would be fair to say as high as 80% of enquires received are due to poor defence work, the shame is, in these highly charged cases, often for whatever reason, nothing really ever gets done.
The problem with the above is that, while it may work very well in other cases, it usually does not in a sexual allegation case. I have said, time and again, most solicitors do not have real experience in defending sexual allegation’s cases, or at least defending them properly. They may tell a client they have, but in most cases, that is simply not the truth.
When a criminal solicitor, even an excellent one, attempts to handle a sexual offence case in the same manner they handle their “normal” criminal cases, it can quickly become a disaster for their client, often its then to late to do anything about it.