In my last article I told you about the Duty Solicitor. Today I want to tell you about what is involved in changing solicitors.

For various reasons, someone can fall out with their solicitor and wish to be represented by another. However it is not as easy as that. In the first place it will depend upon what stage the case has reached. If, for example, it as at trial or very close to trial, the court is likely to take a dim view of a request to change solicitor and would be justified in thinking it was merely a delaying tactic on the part of the accused. In such circumstances the court may well refuse any request for a delay to enable another solicitor to be instructed and require the accused to defend himself instead.

Nor is the position inevitably better before the trial date and that is because the majority of people accused of crime are defended on legal aid. If legal aid is involved it is not for the accused to decide that another solicitor be instructed. That is a decision exclusively for the Legal Aid Board to make. This is because legally it is the Board who are the solicitor’s client and not the accused. If someone is on legal aid and wishes to change solicitor, that will only happen if the Board are persuaded that it is appropriate to do so and sometimes they are not persuaded. Good reason has to be given to them to justify any request to change solicitor. Should the Board refuse to transfer legal aid to the newly desirable solicitor then, either the accused has to stay with his original one or he has to defend himself without any solicitor. Further as the Board tell the original solicitor that his client has tried unsuccessfully to fire him, it hardly makes for a good future solicitor/client relationship. Finally if legal aid is indeed transferred to the new solicitor, under the rules of the Board the new one will only receive half the fixed fee for the job. As solicitors are complaining about the level of the full fixed fee, which has stayed the same for 10 years, receiving half the going rate is hardly enticing. You may well find your chosen new solicitor declining to take over the case.

If you are legally aided, either through the duty scheme or having successfully applied for legal aid, and you have pled guilty, or be found guilty after trial, and are awaiting sentence, it is extremely unlikely that the Board would allow a transfer to another solicitor other than because of his death, retirement or other similar reason for not being able to continue to act for you.

The simple lesson to be learned is that you should make very sure that you instruct the solicitor you actually want to defend you and not lightly sign any legal aid application for any other solicitor. For the avoidance of any doubt, you do not need to apply for legal aid nor sign any paperwork to be represented by the duty solicitor on the day you appear from custody. If you do, you are instructing that duty solicitor to act for you for the rest of the case and may easily be stuck with him or her whether you like it or not.

And just to show there really is one law for the rich and another for the poor, for the few who are not on legal aid, either because it has not been granted or because they can afford to pay privately, the situation is different. Subject always to the court’s approval, which will only be withheld if changing is going to interfere with the progress of the case in, for example, delaying the trial, you can change your solicitor as often and when you like. All you have to do is pay your last one’s bill for the work done to date and you can instruct your new solicitor without having to ask anyone.