Can anyone tell me how my defendant should select a super solicitor please?

[henone]

First crime novel in progress and I now need to provide one of my characters with very competent legal advice on the alleged offence. Of course, repeat offenders all know who is best in any given city and have said advisor on speed dial, but if a character has always been of good character and has no previous encounters with the police or the criminal law, beyond settling for the duty solicitor, how might they go about finding good legal advice and representation? Are solicitors ranked in any way? All I can find is the Law Society's website where practices are listed. Please steer me in the right direction for a plausible search method. Very many thanks.

they'd start with the Legal 500 online...

Is your defendant wealthy enough to be paying for their own advisor? If so - they’d probably look at Chambers for firm / individuals rankings. If they’re lucky enough to be getting legal aid, then there’s far less choice

My defendant is reasonably solvent; think small town agricultural contracting.

A recommendation from someone well connected? Or a different partner in the firm that the character has used for other things? Or one from the media - Mr Loophole - for example or Charlotte Proudman is carving herself out as the media friendly family law barrister. If the case was high profile enough

So you could create a high profile solicitor/barrister/firm and go there? Or they read about a firm that represents someone famous and finds someone there?

Could she have a friend who is a journalist on the local newspaper? Or a friend who is a legal secretary? Or a friend who is a lawyer in a different field who can recommend someone? Or might she have seen the solicitor on TV representing a famous case?

www.legal500.com/c/london/crime-fraud-and-licensing/crime-general/

My defendant has a medium-sized agricultural contracting business in a rural area, and mostly knows farmers. His experience of the law tends to be around land and tenancy agreements or financing tractor purchases... I suppose he could have a dodgy acquaintance or several. Asking them is a distinct possibility, but the Legal 500 @Peach2021 suggested looks a good starting point. Thanks very much all; any other ideas considered with interest. I want to be plausible without being obvious.

Honestly, only lawyers read Legal 500/Chambers in my opinion (as a lawyer!). It is totally implausible that a farmer would look up a lawyer in those directories.

Any of the other suggestions (read about a high profile case in the local newspaper is a good one) would be more realistic.

Sorry, see he’s not a farmer, but my point is the same - no one outside of the law has really heard of Legal 500

@SlipperyLizard, thanks, you're right. The character is all adrift and has no clue where to start looking for the right representation, so there needs to be an explanation of how a reputable person makes a choice and makes contact. Maybe one of the team is a MNetter and posted this question!

National Farmer’s Union would have access to good legal advice, could he be a member?

Give him a lawyer he uses for business and he can ask them for a recommendation.

Could he not be drowning his sorrows in the pub over a pint and pick up a discarded newspaper, come across an article about a criminal case with a not guilty verdict and just randomly decide to find that solicitor.
Eg 'Notorius local criminal walks free after hotshot City solicitor wins fraud trial' kind of thing.

That's the obvious thing any sensible person would do: I'm over-thinking this! Many, many thanks everyone. Hope this has been an amusing distraction for 45 minutes. I'll ponder it later.

Has he already been arrested? Is this in England ml?

If he's already been arrested he could just opt for the Duty Solicitor who will be assigned to him by the duty system then go from there. They don't have to work the case through until the end.

My experience with people looking for non-criminal lawyers is:

they'll google "local criminal lawyer"

they'll ask on a forum -> Mumsnet!

they'll ask a lawyer acquaintance or existing non-criminal lawyer for a recommendation (as has been suggested)

they won't use Legal 500, but they might - if this is a thing in the UK - look at a list of "100 best criminal lawyers" or something like that from a more accessible source (there was something similar in Germany recently published by a popular tabloid)

do local papers carry ads for criminal lawyers in the UK?

He's been arrested in England, but the Duty Solicitor assigned was "wet behind the ears". My defendant is used to paying experts, but not in this horrible new world.

I've not noticed ads for criminal lawyers in our rural area... it's all family and conveyancing. It's not Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer locally.

Probably then, he needs to go to the NFU - I've never known a farmer not to be a member and buy 99% of their insurance through them including any legal cover.

Depending on what he's accused of, they may help him appoint a better solicitor. They have certainly done that for H&S - related legal issues (including criminal investigations) in my recent experience.

www.nfuonline.com/services/nfu-legal-services/

If it's driving offences, maybe a "Mr Loophole" type who is frequently in national papers.

Or he's read a similar / related case in a paper and contacts the firm - especially if it's sexual offences, fraud or similarly highly specialised areas of law.

A point may be that there are two types of people: most will be looking for a lawyer under the impression that all are quite equally up for the task and will not really look any further than simply finding an available lawyer in a field, but some people are convinced that they need "the best" lawyer and will try to research it.

(The truth is somewhat in the middle, but a non-lawyer or a lawyer in another field is unlikely to be able to tell wheter a given lawyer is good, let alone "the best" for a certain case)

Does your defendant use social media. Perhaps he could start tweeting at lawyers.

His rich landowner/ farming friend has a family firm they have used for years he can ask for a recommendation for you

I agree that most standard people have never heard of the legal 500.

virtually every magistrates court has some criminal lawyers offices very nearby. How about walking past the court and asking people who work there who is good. I know as a magistrate we have fantasy lists of who we would have represent us and who we definitely wouldn’t. Does he know any magistrates??