Part Three of My Solicitors' Guide

So far I have explained how to ensure the safety of your client throughout police detention, interview and charge. Now, in the third instalment of my Solicitors' Guide, which national newspapers have described in no way, I will give you tips on protecting your client during the court process.

The important thing to remember is the golden rule: There is no penalty for pleading Not-Guilty. This is because your client can change his/her plea at any time with no likelihood of a higher sentence. In any event, it isn't the solicitor who will go to prison anyway. Alongside the Not-Guilty plea, you should request a series of time-consuming investigative actions from the police without which you will claim your client cannot have a fair trial.

The thinking behind the Not-Guilty plea is that the longer the case goes on for, the higher the chance that one of the following things will occur:

• The police will lose the file.
• The prosecution will lose the file.
• The victim will change their mind.
• The witnesses will move abroad.
• The police will fail to do something you asked and you can file for abuse of process.
• The officer in charge of the case wil leave the force.
• The defendant might stay clean for a few months and you can use this as a reason for a lower sentence.
• The magistrates will feel it isn't really fair to convict someone after so long.

If the case does get to court, by no means advise a change of plea before checking the following factors:

• Has any witness failed to turn up? This can include the guy from the police control room who copies tapes.
• Are there other trials double-booked for the same courtroom?
• Can your client produce a medical note stating s/he is ill?
• Has someone in your cient's family died?
• Can you produce a mystery witness name at the last minute and say you want them called, for which the case will have to be delayed?

If the answer to any of these is "yes", you can apply for a discontinuance or adjournment. For the reasons why this is a good thing, see above. In the unlucky event that the case goes ahead on the day, only NOW should you read the file and decide whether your cient is so obviously guilty that even a magistrate couldn't help but convict them. In that case, advise a Guilty plea.

Whilst guidelines state that the reduction in sentence for a plea "At the door of the court" (first day of trial) may only be one tenth, in practice magistrates get so excited at the fact this is one of the times they can use their discretion that they will jump at the chance. the sentence wi therefore be no different than if your client had admitted the offence in police interview on Day 1 - but wth a lot more public money wasted in the process. Now that can never be a bad thing!

By the way, thank you for the appreciative comments yesterday - that's more praise than my force has given me in the last three years!

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