The Crown Court sits in the Shirehall on Foregate Street, where Worcestershire's serious criminal trials have been heard for generations and where criminal law solicitors in Worcester spend much of their week. Defendants come from across the county, from Kidderminster and Redditch as well as the city, and the lists reflect it: drug supply along the M5 corridor, serious assaults, sexual offences, fraud, and the burglaries and vehicle thefts that trouble rural parishes.
Cases start earlier than that. Anyone arrested by West Mercia Police, or invited to a voluntary interview, can insist on a free solicitor at the police station whatever their income, and the duty scheme covers the custody suite in Worcester at all hours. Summary matters, including most motoring offences from the M5, the A38 and the A449, are dealt with at Worcester Magistrates' Court, and only the serious ones are sent up to the Crown Court.
The county's caseload has a rural side. Hare coursing, poaching, theft of quad bikes and machinery, firearms certificate disputes and offences involving dogs and livestock come before the Worcester courts, alongside the drink-driving, public order and domestic abuse cases that every city generates and the occasional disorder after the races at Pitchcroft. Regulatory prosecutions of farms and food businesses, and health and safety cases from the county's factories, are handled by the same firms.
Legal aid is available for most criminal cases, means-tested in the magistrates' court and with possible contributions in the Crown Court; a motoring case paid for privately is usually fixed-fee, and anything larger should come with a written estimate for each stage.
Criminal defence firms serving Worcester are listed below, verified ones first. Read what criminal law involves and can I get legal help for free, see the general criminal law solicitors page, and for the west of the region criminal law solicitors in Hereford.
