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: Diary of a Criminal Solicitor

Thank You for Your Hard Work

I had the joy of being on call again last night.

I was called to the Police Station to deal with a regular Client who is often involved in violent offences and can be an aggressive indivdual, even towards my colleagues.

After a brief consultation where the Client indicated he did not want to be interviewed I explained that he was likely to be charged with an offence and kept in custody until he could be put before a Magistrates Court. I then invited him to sign some legal aid forms to ensure funding was put in place for his imminent hearing his reply was:

"I'm not signing your f'ing legal aid forms so you can get f'ing paid."

Now the odd thing is that up to this point I had not fallen out with the Client at this point.

There was nothing wrong in principal for him to decline to sign the legal aid forms. Over the years of doing my job I have encountered many interesting individuals, including many people who are aggressive and unhappy at being detained at the Police Station. Some are rude, and some are ungrateful. None have refused to sign legal aid applications so far - that is probably if they do not want to sign the forms they will not be represented at Court.

Full post as published by Diary of a Criminal Solicitor on June 26, 2012 (boomark / email).