Criminal Lawyers: directory of firms

GOV.UK is explicit that a police custody officer will help you get legal aid if you have been arrested and held at a police station, and that the advice there is free. You can take it over the phone, from the station's duty solicitor, or from your own legal adviser if you have one.

The practical advice is short. Ask for a solicitor before the interview, not during it. Do not treat a request for a solicitor as an admission of anything, because it is a right and exercising it is routine. And say nothing substantive to officers while you wait, because informal conversations in a cell corridor are still recorded in a pocket notebook.

After charge, the case begins in the magistrates' court. Less serious matters stay there. The most serious go to the Crown Court, which GOV.UK describes as dealing with offences such as murder, rape and robbery, with cases passed up from the magistrates' court for trial or sentencing, and which also hears appeals against magistrates' court convictions and sentences.

Between those extremes sit offences that can be tried either way, where the decision about venue is a real tactical question with different consequences for procedure and sentence. That decision comes up early, sometimes at the first hearing, which is why having representation lined up before that date matters.

A defence solicitor's first job after charge is usually the evidence: what the prosecution actually has, what it has not disclosed yet, and whether the case as served supports the charge. Plea comes after that, not before.

Scotland does not have the Crown Prosecution Service or magistrates' courts. Prosecutions are brought by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which describes itself as Scotland's prosecution service and death investigation authority, prepares cases for court, investigates deaths and examines criminal allegations against police officers.

Scottish criminal procedure divides into solemn cases, heard with a jury in the High Court of Justiciary or the sheriff court, and summary cases heard by a sheriff or a justice of the peace without a jury. The terminology, the rules of evidence and the appeal routes all differ from those in England and Wales, so a Scottish case needs a Scottish criminal solicitor.

Police station representatives and duty solicitors work under accreditation schemes, and firms doing publicly funded criminal work hold contracts to do it. You are entitled to ask who is attending, whether they are a solicitor or an accredited representative, and who will appear at court.

You can verify a solicitor on the SRA's Solicitors Register in England and Wales, and a barrister on the Bar Standards Board's Barristers' Register, which also records public access authorisation and past disciplinary findings. If a case is going to the Crown Court, ask early who will be instructed as your advocate, because continuity between the station, the magistrates' court and trial is worth protecting.

Driving cases are where people most often decide legal advice is not worth it, and most often regret it. Penalty points, totting up, a disqualification or a conviction for a drink or drug driving offence affect insurance, employment and travel, and some outcomes are avoidable only if the argument is made at the right hearing.

The same applies to charges that sound trivial. A conviction can surface in an enhanced criminal record check, in a visa application, in a professional regulator's fitness assessment or in a licence renewal years later. Ask about those consequences before entering a plea rather than after sentence, because the answer sometimes changes what the right plea is.