Hereford keeps its own Crown Court, so a jury trial for someone from Leominster or Ledbury is heard in the city rather than sent to Worcester. Criminal law solicitors in Hereford appear there and at the magistrates' court in the Hereford Justice Centre, and they cross the border too: a client arrested by Dyfed-Powys Police in Hay or Gwent Police in Monmouth faces the same law at different police stations and courts, and a Hereford firm is often the nearest that practises crime at all.
Everything begins at the police station, where advice from a solicitor is free regardless of income. In a county this size the custody suite may be an hour from home, and the duty solicitor or the firm's representative travels at night to reach it; what is said in the interview shapes the case.
The lists in Hereford have a rural character that city firms rarely see. Theft of sheep, quad bikes and tractors, hare coursing and poaching on the Wye, firearms certificate revocations, environmental and animal welfare offences, and health and safety prosecutions of farms and food plants sit beside the drug supply lines that reach Hereford from the West Midlands, the drink-driving on the A49 and A465, and the public order and domestic abuse cases found anywhere. Soldiers from Credenhill may be dealt with by the service justice system instead of the civilian courts.
Legal aid pays for most criminal defence, after a means test in the magistrates' court and sometimes with contributions in the Crown Court, and the shortage of contracted firms in the county makes early contact important. Motoring cases are usually fixed-fee when paid privately.
The defence firms below cover Hereford and the county, verified practices at the top. What criminal law involves follows a case from arrest to sentence, can I get legal help for free explains legal aid, the general criminal law solicitors page describes the service, and the criminal law solicitors in Worcester page covers the east of the region.
