If you have been invited to attend a police interview or are facing arrest, choosing the right legal representation is one of the most important decisions you can make. While duty solicitors are available free of charge, there are significant differences between relying on the duty scheme and instructing a specialist solicitor privately.
At Sutton Defence, we provide expert advice and representation for individuals accused of sexual offences. To speak with one of our specialist defence solicitors, contact Stuart Sutton on 07798 753 720 or Sarah Hammond on 07592 157 957 or complete our online enquiry form for immediate assistance.
The term “duty solicitor” is somewhat of a misnomer.
Not all duty “solicitors” are qualified solicitors.
Some are chartered legal executives who have undergone further accreditation to take part in the duty scheme, meaning that they are “qualified” to assist people at a police station. They hail from independent law firms (they are not police or court appointed) and the duty scheme is available to someone on a 24 hour, 7 day week, 365 days basis.
However, if you want a qualified solicitor to assist you at a police interview, you can only guarantee that you have a qualified solicitor if you instruct someone that you know who is so qualified.
Sometimes you don’t get a chance to choose a representative.
For example, the majority of the people who are reading this article have never been arrested by the police or asked to attend an interview.
Therefore, you do not know what is good or bad advice.
Can you imagine being accused of a rape, be it historic or recent and having to attend a police station on your own?
You will want some advice, and quite understandably.
Let’s say you attend at the police station and you have an adequate defence which you can advance and you tell your duty “representative” what your defence is but yet you are advised to say “no comment”, to all the questions that the police ask you, perhaps with a short written statement at the beginning of the interview that will be read out by the duty representative.
Later on, it may be that you are charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with the rape offence and you have to appear before a court (judge and jury).
If you have said no comment and only had a written statement read to the police in the interview, you have flown in the face of the caution, which says,
“You do not have to say anything; however, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned, something you may later rely on in court. Any you do say may be given in evidence”.
Therefore the caution means that although you have a right to silence, should you later be charged and having had the opportunity to give a feasible defence to the police in interview but having failed to do so (or in the alternative you have changed your defence) the court may draw an adverse inference which means they may wonder why you failed to give your defence when you had the opportunity to do so.
You may think it would be adequate for you to say, “I followed the advice of my duty representative”.
Sadly, that is not so.
The courts will say that if your duty representative had advised you to put your hand in the fire, would you have done it?
The answer would be “No”.
It is advice which you do not have to take, and if you want to advance your defence, then you should do so.
Not only do you probably not have a choice of who represents you, but you also do not have a choice of who is well-versed in relation to the allegations that you face.
As you know, we at SSDLL deal solely with people accused of sexual offences.
Therefore, if you instruct us, before your first interview, we will seek disclosure from the police (an outline of the allegations against you), take your instructions in anticipation of the interview and then attended upon you at the interview, knowing what you should say to the questions that the police ask you.
If you have already been interviewed, especially if you said “no comment,” yet you feel that you have a defence, we will attempt to organise a re-interview with the police so that you can go back and give a “full comment” interview, so as to advance your defence.
Contact Our Sexual Offence Defence Lawyers
Facing a police interview or arrest can be overwhelming, but you do not have to face it alone. Our experienced solicitors provide confidential, expert advice and strong representation from the very start of your case.
Contact Stuart Sutton at stuart@ssdll.co.uk or on telephone number 07798 753 720 or alternatively, contact Sarah Hammond at sarah@ssdll.co.uk or on telephone number 07592 157 957.
