The custody suite at Fresh Wharf in Barking handles arrests from across this part of east London, and a criminal law solicitor in Barking and Dagenham will spend a good deal of time in it. Anyone held there, or invited to a voluntary interview, has the right to a solicitor free of charge, whatever their income, before the questioning starts, and the advice given in that room, on whether to answer questions and what the police have actually disclosed, decides more cases than anything that happens later.
Court comes next, and it is no longer in the borough. Barking's magistrates' court closed, so first hearings and summary trials are listed at Barkingside or Romford, and cases too serious for the magistrates go to Snaresbrook Crown Court in Wanstead. Barking and Dagenham firms, and the Ilford and Romford firms that share the work, appear in all three every week.
The caseload reflects a young, fast-changing outer borough. Driving offences on the A13 and the A12, from driving without insurance or while disqualified to drink and drug driving, are a large part of it and are often handled on a fixed fee. Drug supply and county lines cases involving teenagers, knife possession, robbery, domestic abuse allegations, violence in Barking town centre at night and theft from vans and building sites make up much of the rest, alongside the fly-tipping and waste prosecutions the council pursues vigorously. Young defendants go to the youth court.
Most defendants here are legally aided, after a means test in the magistrates' court, and a duty solicitor is available at any hour. Privately paying clients should ask for a fixed fee for each stage.
Criminal defence firms serving Barking and Dagenham appear below, verified firms first. For the basics, there is an introduction to criminal law, a general criminal law solicitors page and a guide to who can get legal help for free; the Barkingside court is covered on the Redbridge criminal law page.
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