I went to my local Magistrates Court yesterday to act as Court Duty Solicitor. Recently the Court Duty sessions have been very quiet where there are only three or four people asking for the services of the Court Duty Solicitor. Yesterday was really busy.
After suffering travel delays I arrived at Court twenty minutes later than I had planned to arrive. I rushed in through the doors and was immediately confronted by a queue of twelve people who wanted to see me and a demanding own Client who was also demanding to see me.
I worked through the morning, lunch and was still going at 4.45pm. I dealt with many drink drive and failing to provide cases and a handful of other imprisonable offences. All in all it was a fairly productive day. As a result of the cases adjourned from today I have lodged six legal aid applications and if they all result in guilty pleas and standard fees then the firm I worked for has coined in more than £1,350 plus VAT, plustravelingg, plus waiting. Also there is the money that they earn as a result of me being Court Duty Solicitor, and that would have been close to £400 plus VAT. Not bad money for the cases and work generated from one day.
2 comments:
How wonderful you can make so much money from guilty pleas. What if they were not guilty though? Should'nt you be putting this first?
You sound so cynical.
If you read the text of my post you will see that I did not say they were all guilty pleas and I have shafted the people who sought my advice to earn money out of their misery.
Although it is difficult to recall that day as it is now some 18 months ago I would have given advice to the Client dependant on the evidence and their instructions.
The point of this post was to highlight that there are some days when hard work can pay off.
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