How do you define the best criminal defence solicitors?

Many people claim to be the best criminal defence solicitors, some are acknowledged by others to be the best.

What does it take to be the best criminal defence solicitors?

A knowledge of the law is obviously important but this is not what separates the good from the best. Some criminal defence solicitors are very poor in terms of basic knowledge but to be fair that is unusual. Most know the law and the truth is most cases are relatively straight forward in terms of the law. It is very rare to get a complex case.

If it’s not the law that separates the best criminal defence solicitors then what is? We are in the privileged position of being told that we are the best by a lot of clients, courts and top barristers we work with. It is not unusual for us to get feedback from barristers to say that we are the best they have ever worked with.

Rather than us tell you why we are the best criminal defence solicitors we asked others why they thought we were. Some common threads came up.

Hard Work. As a team we give every case our all. We never switch off and all of the team work long hours and at home. We have a team chat function that buzzes constantly. We make sure that no case ever leaves this office without it being fully prepared. We always know we have done everything we can on a file.

Tough fighters. A lot of feedback relates to how hard we fight, how we are not scared to upset the prosecution or the police if we need to get a result. Now it may appear that way but that is not the full story. We only do that when we have to. Most time we work with organisations such as the police and prosecution. We get on well with them and the courts we appear in. There is no sense in upsetting everyone just for the sake of it. But mess with one of our clients and you will see a different side of us. We do what we have to.

Devastating cross examination. If a witness is lying our Steve Williams will expose them in court. Described as ‘surgeon like’ he will gently lead the witness into a carefully crafted trap, exposing the lie. Delivering the ultimate killer blow with his well known question “which of the 2 versions of your story is a lie? Did you lie to the police or are you lying now? We know you are lying, which just aren’t sure yet which is the lie….. maybe they are both lies?”

All of these are valid but we think that the most important aspect is our legendary, award winning client care. This underpins everything we do. We only work so hard because we genuinely care. It is nice to win awards, it is good to hear other professionals tell us how good we are and yes it give us a boost when a client moves to us and his old solicitors say ‘I don’t blame you, they are the best’. But the thing that means the most to us is when clients get a good result and when they are happy. Everything we do is for the clients. We are not a Legal Aid firm. We pick and choose which clients we work with and that means if we take your case on its because we believe in it. We will take it personally. You are taught at law school not to get too close to the clients, not to take it personally. We do things differently. To us it is personal. We will be at your side through every step of the way. We will care about your case as much as you do. We know it’s not just about getting good results it’s also about the journey to that result and we will make sure it is as good as possible. We know it is stressful, we know it will never be easy but we will be in this together.

If you want to find out what makes us different, why we win so many awards and why so many say we are the best criminal defence solicitors call us now.

Call anytime on 01623 397200.

You Can Be Sorry Without Being Guilty

We were instructed recently by a gentleman accused of sexual assault.

He fully accepted that the sexual touching alleged, had occurred.

He was advised by another firm of solicitors to plead guilty on this basis.

Fortunately, he sought a second opinion, and we delved deeper into the details.

While our client accepted that the sexual touching happened, and was mortified that he had caused upset to the alleged victim, he has adamant that the alleged victim had consented to the touching, or at least had given him a reasonable belief that she consented.

This case presented us with an interesting issue: remorse doesn’t always mean guilt.

This is an important point, because a decent person accused of an offence, may naturally express remorse for the incident and that remorse may be perceived as an admission of guilt.

A driver interviewed in relation to a case of of causing death by dangerous driving would almost certainly be devastated about the incident, but this devastation does not mean that there was any fault at all with their driving.

A person charged with failing to provide a breath specimen may be very sorry to not have given the sample, but if they have a valid reason for not giving the sample, they are not guilty of the offence, despite any apology they express for not fulfilling the request.

Similarly, our client charged with sexual assault was very apologetic for causing upset to the alleged victim, but that did not make him guilty in the eyes of the law.  In fact, we advised this client to plead not guilty, and he was found not guilty at trial.

It is important for everyone who works with or comes into contact with the legal system to remember that an expression of sympathy, regret or remorse is not an indication of guilt in many offences.

“I’m sorry that happened” isn’t the same as, “I did it”.