A knock on the door of a Bishopsgate office at seven in the morning, a search warrant and a request to attend an interview under caution: this is what a criminal case usually looks like in the City of London. The Square Mile's crime is financial, and its investigators are the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority, pursuing insider dealing, market abuse, money laundering, bribery, investment fraud and cyber offences. Account freezing and restraint orders come early in such cases, and a defence solicitor with fraud experience is needed before the first interview, not after the charge.
The street-level work exists too. Phone snatching around Liverpool Street and Bank, assaults and drunkenness after office drinks, drug possession in the bars of Leadenhall, drink driving on the way home and collisions between cyclists and vans all pass through the City police's custody suite, and the same right applies: free legal advice at the police station for anyone, whatever their income. Minor cases go to a magistrates' court, which one depending on who made the arrest and where.
Serious trials are heard at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, which stands inside the City and takes the gravest cases from across London, and at Southwark Crown Court, where many of the capital's fraud trials are listed. Defence solicitors in the City of London prepare the case, instruct counsel, manage disclosure that can run to millions of documents and advise on the professional consequences of any finding.
Legal aid is means-tested and, for a City salary, rarely available in full; private fees are quoted by stage, and employers' insurance sometimes covers regulatory interviews.
Criminal defence firms serving the City of London are listed below, verified first. Read what criminal law involves, the general criminal law solicitors page, whether you can get legal help for free and the criminal law solicitors in London page.
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