Most people in the waiting room at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on a Monday morning were arrested over the weekend. The court on Holloway Road takes the first appearances, bail decisions and summary trials for Islington and a wide slice of north London, and the firms that appear there daily are the ones to call from the custody suite on Tolpuddle Street. Pentonville prison, a short distance away on the Caledonian Road, is where a refused bail application leads, which concentrates the mind.
The borough's cases come from its streets. Arsenal's home fixtures bring public order offences, flares, pitch incursions and the football banning orders that follow a conviction; Upper Street and Holloway Road at night bring assault, drunk and disorderly and drug possession; Finsbury Park and the estates bring drug supply and the knife and robbery cases every inner-London borough knows. Theft of phones and bikes around Angel, shoplifting on the high streets and driving offences on Holloway Road and Seven Sisters Road make up the volume.
Whoever the client is, the first step is the same: a solicitor at the police station, free and independent whatever the person's means, before any interview. A criminal defence solicitor in Islington then handles the first hearing, applies for bail, prepares the defence and either runs the trial before the magistrates or instructs a barrister for the Crown Court, usually Wood Green, Snaresbrook or the Old Bailey depending on where the case is sent.
Legal aid is means-tested for the magistrates' court and available with possible contributions in the Crown Court. Several local firms hold a criminal contract and share the duty rota at Highbury Corner. Privately funded cases are quoted per stage; motoring matters are often fixed.
Criminal defence firms serving Islington are listed below, verified first. See what criminal law involves, the general criminal law solicitors guide, whether you can get legal help for free and the criminal law solicitors in London page.
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