Legal Briefing
SOLICITOR JULIET PHILLIPS - JAMES CASTS HER EXPERT EYE OVER A RANGE OF LEGAL MATTERS AND URGES ANYONE WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS TO COME FORWARD FOR HELP.
QI have been contacted by Police to attend a Voluntary interview under Caution. I have never been in this position before and I’m a bit nervous. What is the process for instructing you to represent me, do you work weekends and what are your fees? Interviews at the Police Station are matters we deal with on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Regardless of the day of the week, a member of our team will be on hand to represent you. Initially, we would take some basic details from you, the date and time of interview, offence you are to be interviewed for and the Officer’s details. We will also make enquiries with the relevant Police Station and Officer.
AUpon attendance at the Police station, we would obtain disclosure, i.e what the Police intend to interview you about and we will then assess the nature and strength of the evidence. We will then have a private and confidential conversation with you upon your arrival at the Police Station. We will take you through the evidence, and obtain your instructions. Having obtained your account, we will then advise you as to how we believe you should proceed in interview, whether this be answering all questions, providing a Prepared Statement or a No Comment interview. Following our advice, you will be fully briefed on the structure of the interview to ensure you understand the process that the Police will follow. We will remain in the interview with you to provide ongoing legal advice and ensure that we advance and protect your basic and legal rights. On conclusion of the interview, we will remain in contact with the Officer throughout and keep you updated and informed as to the progress of the investigation. We strongly advise that upon any request from the Police to attend an interview, you contact us as a matter of urgency for representation, no matter how minor you believe the matter to be. Having a legal representative enables you to be fully appraised of the strength of the evidence.