Criminal Lawyers: directory of firms

If you have been arrested or asked to attend a police interview, the time to get advice is before the interview, not after it. What is said in a recorded interview becomes evidence and cannot be unsaid, and an explanation offered to be helpful can narrow the defences available later.

Every state and territory legal aid commission runs a telephone line for this, and duty lawyers are available at court. The rules about what you must tell police, such as your name and address, and what you are not obliged to say, differ between jurisdictions, so the advice needs to come from someone who practises where you are.

Bail is the other urgent question. If bail is refused at the police station it is determined by the court, and legal aid duty lawyers appear on bail applications, subject to the applicable means test.

A matter is listed for mention, where the plea is indicated and the prosecution serves its brief of evidence. On a plea of guilty the court moves to sentence, often on the same day in simple matters, and the work is in the material put before the magistrate: references, treatment, employment, prior record and the circumstances of the offence.

On a plea of not guilty a summary matter is listed for hearing, with the prosecution calling its witnesses and the defence testing them. An indictable matter goes through a committal process before it moves up to a higher court for trial.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales and the courts of Queensland publish their own practice information, and procedure genuinely differs, which is why a lawyer who appears regularly in the particular court is worth more than a general practitioner.

Duty lawyers at court are free and available on the day, either employed by the legal aid commission or private lawyers paid by it. Legal Aid NSW notes that they appear for first appearances, pleas of guilty, mentions, adjournments and bail applications, and cannot help where you have pleaded not guilty and the matter is listed for hearing that day.

A grant of legal aid for ongoing representation is assessed against means and merit tests and is available for more serious matters. A private lawyer charges you but takes the matter from the beginning, can prepare well before the first date, and can spend time on negotiation with the prosecution about charges and facts.

Criminal law is one of the areas of practice you can search directly on Victoria's Register of Lawyers, along with road and traffic law and family violence and statutory offences. Other states publish their own practitioner searches, and Queensland's Legal Services Commission maintains a discipline register.

Ask how often the lawyer appears in the specific court your matter is listed in. Local practice about listing, negotiation with prosecutors and sentencing approaches varies between courts even within one state, and familiarity is practical, not cosmetic.

Talking to police without advice, contacting a complainant or a witness, breaching bail conditions and missing a court date all create new problems on top of the original charge. A failure to appear can lead to a warrant, and a breach of bail is dealt with separately from the substantive matter.

Pleading guilty to get it over with, before anyone has read the brief of evidence, is the other regret. Facts in a police statement are often negotiable, and the agreed facts a magistrate sentences on can matter as much as the charge itself.