Contact

This is a free information site. I read everything sent to me and reply to most of it.

If you want advice on your own case

You can ask. Use the form below and choose “Advice on my own case” as the topic. A couple of lines about what you are accused of, and any date you have been given, is enough to start with — there is no need to send your papers, and the form does not take attachments. If it is something I can help with I will come back to you and we can take it from there.

If you have a deadline coming up, do these things first, in this order.

1. Check the date on your notice. A Single Justice Procedure Notice normally gives you 21 days from the date printed on it. Missing that date is worse than anything you are likely to put in the reply. What the notice is, and what your options are.
2. Run the offence through the tool. It will tell you what you are likely to be facing and whether this is the kind of case worth paying somebody for. Check an offence.
3. If it is, instruct someone before you reply, not after. Pleading guilty by post gives up arguments you cannot get back, and the credit for a guilty plea is at its highest at the first opportunity. You can find a barrister who accepts work directly from the public through the Bar Council’s Direct Access Portal, or a solicitor through the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor.

Everything else

Corrections are genuinely welcome. This site states the law as at a date printed on every page, and guidelines change. If something here is wrong, or has gone out of date, telling me is the fastest way to get it fixed.