Duty solicitor help please

[Oblbobbob]

Posted this in chat too. Really need help please.

A close friend was arrested and appeared in court a few weeks ago - financial crime, was bailed and there will be a further hearing later this year.

The experience of it has knocked friend for 6 and brought on a lot of MH issues, now under crisis team. At court the duty solicitor was appointed but friend can't remember their name or firm and hasn't received any correspondence from duty solicitors since. It's possible that this has gone astray.

I know that (as friend will qualify for legal aid) the legal aid application needs to be made well before the next hearing so we need to find out who the legal person was soon as really.

So any criminal people know how we can get to this? . I have tried looking on the duty solicitor Rota for the court but everyone down on that date for this court was the wrong gender so I'm a bit stuck. And given MH issues friend isn't really in right headspace to sort it out hence why I'm helping.

Can we call the court? Does it have to be friend and not me because of DPA or whatnot?

Ring the court, explain the situation
and they should be able to provide the Solicitors name, and normally the firm as Duty Solicitors are often local to the courthouse.
Further, if Legal Aid hasn't been applied for or granted your friend is free to approach any firm of Solicitors to act on her behalf.

If you call the court and speak to the clerk's office they will be able to tell from the court minutes who appeared for your friend.

Hi,

Duty Solicitor here. Firms substitute members of staff within court rotas all the time, so it’s probably one of the firms listed as being on duty. Did your friend fill in Legal Aid forms with the solicitor he/she saw? There should be two forms giving details of their finances etc and they would have been asked to sign them. It’s standard procedure for most duty Solicitors to go ahead and do this. It’s highly likely that that firm is already dealing with the matter. If your friend is on income support or JSA they would only need to provide a NI number and it’ll go through. As for not hearing from the Solicitors your friend may not do so until the application is granted.

In any event the court will certainly have a record of which firm acted. Your friend will need to contact them directly though.