A drink-drive arrest on the M6 at Southwaite, a fight outside a pub in Botcherby, a quad bike stolen from a farm near Brampton and a tourist found with cannabis at a Keswick campsite all end up in the same place: Carlisle, where the custody suite, the magistrates' court at Rickergate and the Crown Court at the Combined Court Centre on Earl Street sit within a few minutes of each other. Criminal law solicitors in Carlisle cover the north of the county, and because the Crown Court serves the whole of Cumbria a defendant from Workington or Barrow may be tried here too.
Free legal advice at the police station is a right for anyone arrested or interviewed under caution, regardless of income, and a good firm sends someone to the station for anything that matters, however far. The interview decides much of what follows.
The caseload is rural and motoring-heavy. Speeding, drink and drug driving and totting-up disqualifications matter more here than in a city, because losing a licence in Alston or Wigton can mean losing a job, and exceptional hardship arguments are a Carlisle speciality. Rural crime includes sheep and machinery theft, hare coursing, poaching, firearms and shotgun certificate revocations, and the animal welfare and environmental offences that bring farmers to court for the first time. The bars of Botchergate supply the assaults and public order; drug supply along the M6 and across the border supplies the Crown Court; and domestic abuse, as everywhere, is a large part of both.
Legal aid is available, means-tested in the magistrates' court and with contributions in the Crown Court, and the duty solicitor scheme covers Carlisle round the clock. Private fees are quoted by stage, with motoring matters usually fixed.
Criminal defence firms serving Carlisle are listed below, verified first. The guides to criminal law and free legal help are worth reading first, as is the general criminal law solicitors page; the Cumbria search finds firms nearer the west coast.
