Croydon is the one outer borough where a defendant can be dealt with from first appearance to Crown Court trial without leaving the town centre. The magistrates' court and the Crown Court sit side by side a few minutes from East Croydon station, the custody suite is a short drive away, and the criminal defence solicitors based around them are in court most days. Cases come from Sutton, Bromley and beyond as well as Croydon itself, and the Crown Court lists everything from drug supply and serious violence to fraud and sexual offences.
The borough's caseload is large and varied. Town centre offences cluster around East and West Croydon stations and the night-time economy; the tram and bus network brings robbery and fare cases; county lines drug supply reaches out of the borough into Surrey and Sussex; domestic abuse, knife possession and youth cases are a constant; and the proximity of Lunar House means immigration offences, from working without permission to false documents, needing a solicitor who understands both the criminal and the immigration consequences. Motoring cases from the A23, the Purley Way and the A22 fill the magistrates' lists.
For everyone the case begins at the police station, where advice is free whatever the suspect's means, on arrest or at a voluntary interview, and a good solicitor in the interview room changes what follows. Legal aid in the magistrates' court is means-tested; in the Crown Court it is more widely available, though contributions may be ordered from income or, after conviction, from capital. Many Croydon firms hold legal aid contracts and run duty solicitor rotas, and most take private instructions at fixed fees for motoring cases and staged estimates for the rest.
Croydon's criminal defence firms appear below, verified firms first. For background, what criminal law involves and whether legal help can be free are the articles to start with, the criminal law solicitors page explains the service, and criminal law solicitors in Sutton covers the borough next door.
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