The Ups and Downs of the Legal Profession have never been more accute than in the last couple of weeks.

My clients continued to receive their usual Rolls Royce service and have been rewarded with exceptionally lenient sentences particularly a first time offender who committed a serious wounding whilst in drink on New Years Eve but who was spared a custodial sentence because he was of good character and more topically entered an Early Guilty Plea- no doubt to the great delight of our Justice Minister the much under fire Ken Clarke !

On the other side of the coin a situation arose in Liverpool Crown Court yesterday which highlights a very worrying conflict between Barristers' and Solicitors' fee structures that comes to a head on the day of a Trial in Legal Aid cases.

Barristers are paid their full trial fee as long as the Defendant maintains his Not guilty Plea until the final Third of the period leading up to trial.  Solicitors are only paid a full trial fee after the first Prosecution witness is sworn in to give evidence.  This means that once the day of the trail dawns - whether or not the defendant changes their plea to guility - the lucky Barrister is paid their full fee whilst us poor Solicitors lose about half of our fee if a guilty plea is entered at the last minute.

Yesterday morning a Substantial Drugs trial was due to start.  As has now become a worrying trend Defendants changed their pleas to Guilty following Advice from their Legal Team.  In the case of our client I could not argue with his decision as the evidence was overwhelming, but in the case of a co-defendant he kept changing his decision on how to plead, depending on whether he had consulted with his Solicitor or with his Counsel for the financial reasons stated above.

Ken Clarke!  Wake up and remove this ridiculous discrepancy in fee structure.  A solicitor's paramount interest is the client and this should not be threatened by financial concerns.

Anyway on a lighter note I am representing Everton Former Players Foundation at the Annual EFPA (European Former Players Association) Congress in Barcelona on Friday.

A much needed break from the trials (forgive the pun) and tribulations of an exciting life of crime, in spite of Ken Clarke!

Until my next Blog ........

.

Welcome to my first ever blog! What a week of victories its been. 

I defied all the doubting Thomases last Friday when I won a Newton Hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, having donned my gown.....not a pretty sight!  Without being boring, a Newton Hearing is a trial without a jury.  You just never win these. 

But that it what exactly I did to end the week on a high.  It involved a young man carrying a holdall containing half a kilo of heroin at a National Coach station. 

He ended up receiving an incredibly low sentence.  Satisfaction all round! 

The good vibes extended into Saturday when my beloved Everton upstaged me with a resounding 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.  How much better can you get than that?!

Next time I will tell you about how I hope to be spreading the Laurence Lee and Co gospel across Australia.