Three football grounds in one borough give Hammersmith and Fulham a criminal calendar that runs from August to May. Match days at Stamford Bridge, Craven Cottage and Loftus Road bring public order charges, flares, pitch incursions, drunkenness and the drug possession that police now pursue around grounds, and a conviction brings a football banning order on top of the sentence. Criminal law solicitors in Hammersmith and Fulham know the Football Spectators Act as well as the Public Order Act, and that resisting a banning order starts before the first hearing.
The rest of the caseload is that of a busy west London borough: drug supply and knife offences around Shepherd's Bush and White City, shoplifting at Westfield, assaults on the Broadway at closing time, speeding and drink driving on the A4 and the Westway, and burglary in Fulham. Wormwood Scrubs, the borough's own prison, adds remand visits, bail applications and prison law. Whoever is arrested, or invited to a voluntary interview at Hammersmith police station on Shepherd's Bush Road, is entitled to a solicitor there at no cost, and the advice given before the first question matters most.
First appearances are at West London Magistrates' Court on Talgarth Road, where the borough's defence firms appear daily; trials beyond the magistrates' powers go to Isleworth Crown Court or, for the gravest cases, the Old Bailey. Firms also handle motoring matters, fraud investigations and the professional and immigration consequences of a conviction.
In the magistrates' court legal aid depends on a means test; in the Crown Court it comes with contributions from those who can pay; several local firms hold contracts and share the duty rota. Private fees are quoted per stage, motoring cases often fixed.
Criminal defence firms serving Hammersmith and Fulham are listed below, verified first. The explainer on criminal law and the general criminal law solicitors page give the background, free legal help explains legal aid, and London criminal law solicitors covers the capital.
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