Devon and Cornwall Police run the force from Middlemoor, on the eastern edge of Exeter, and a great many of the arrests made across Devon end up in the city's courts. The route is familiar to the criminal solicitors who work it: a first appearance at Exeter Magistrates' Court on Heavitree Road, then, for the serious cases, trial or sentence at Exeter Crown Court in the Combined Court Centre at Southernhay Gardens. HMP Exeter, a Victorian local prison in the city, holds many of those remanded along the way.
What should you do if you are arrested, or asked to attend an interview under caution? Ask for a solicitor. The advice costs nothing at the police station, whatever you earn, and the duty solicitor is a qualified criminal lawyer, but you are entitled to name your own firm, and an Exeter firm that knows the custody staff and the local prosecutors is worth having before the interview starts rather than after.
Exeter's caseload reflects a university city on a motorway. Drink and drug driving on the M5, A30 and A38 and the speeding and totting-up cases that follow are constant, and a criminal solicitor who can argue exceptional hardship may keep a Devon client on the road and in work. Student cases range from drugs and public order on a night out to sexual offence allegations with university disciplinary proceedings running alongside. Domestic abuse prosecutions, dishonesty and fraud, drug supply along the lines into Devon from the big cities, and offences on the moors and the coast complete the picture.
Legal aid is means-tested in the magistrates' court and may involve contributions in the Crown Court, and several Exeter firms hold contracts and duty slots. Private clients should ask for a staged fee estimate; motoring work is commonly fixed-fee.
Criminal defence firms serving Exeter are listed below, verified firms first. Read what criminal law involves, the general criminal law solicitors page and can I get legal help for free, or see criminal law solicitors in Plymouth for the south of the county.
