Sir Walter Raleigh was tried for treason in Winchester's Great Hall in 1603, and the city has been hearing Hampshire's gravest criminal cases ever since. Today they are heard next door, at Winchester Crown Court in the Combined Court Centre, which takes murder, serious violence, large drug conspiracies and the most serious sexual offences from across the county. HMP Winchester, on Romsey Road, holds remand prisoners from across the county. The result is a small city with defence solicitors used to the heaviest work.
Most clients never see the Crown Court. A Winchester criminal solicitor's week begins at the police station, where anyone arrested or invited to a voluntary interview by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is entitled to free advice regardless of means, and continues in the magistrates' court that serves the district, which is where every case starts and most finish. Motoring is the biggest category: speeding and totting-up on the M3 and A34, drink and drug driving after an evening in the city's pubs, and the exceptional hardship arguments of commuters, tradesmen and parents who cannot do without a licence. Winchester's professional population brings another type of client, the teacher, doctor, officer or civil servant facing an allegation that threatens a career and a professional registration as much as liberty, where early, discreet handling matters most.
Rural offences, from poaching and hare coursing to firearms licensing and agricultural vehicle cases, come in from the villages.
In the magistrates' court legal aid depends on a means test, and fewer firms hold a criminal contract than once did, so ask early; privately funded clients should get a fixed fee for motoring work and a staged estimate for anything else.
Winchester's criminal defence solicitors appear below, verified firms first and then by distance; for the coast use criminal law solicitors in Southampton. Background reading: can I get legal help for free, what criminal law involves and the general criminal law solicitors page.
