Free Forum Help just enticement in my opinion
Hammond Trotter Solicitors contribute to a free forum forum.drinkdriving.org where they claim to offer free legal advice, however in my opinion, they are very much geared to having a Solicitor/Barrister where you will typically spend £10K (Hammond Solicitors charge lower that this). Someone self-representing even got CPS to drop the case whereas Martin Hammond stated "My advice would be not to do this yourself. It sounds like you have some solid defences but it is very hard to run these things yourself.
As for other advice it would take me a week to describe all the ways the CPS will use to try and win this case. Getting the evidence would by done on common platform if you had a lawyer but if you self representing I would call them and ask them to send it out as otherwise it will just what you received on the first day at Court."
Quite a few on the forum have complained about Solicitors generally promising the earth, paying £10K to £20K and then getting convicted.
Martin Hammond is even asking for reviews on a thread there. This might explain the one line green reviews.
After I raised this concern, Martin Hammond told me by email that he is not affiliated with the forum, receives no financial benefit from participating, and was simply asked to replace a previous solicitor. My impression, however, remains that much of the advice encourages instructing solicitors rather than self-representation.
Reply from Hammond Trotter Solicitors
Thank you for your comments Andrew.
I would like to clarify the following. We do not have a forum, I personally help out on the forum for free in my own time to try and assist people who do not have the funds to hire lawyers. It seems harsh to leave my law firm a 1-star review for this.
As to your criticism of my advice, I stand by all of it. If you hire a solicitor, they use the common platform to get the evidence and if you are not represented the best way is to speak to the CPS and have them to send it to your directly. If I had said the only way to get it is to hire a lawyer I could see your point, but I did not.
As to running complex legal argument yourself, this is incredibly difficult. Not all defences require lawyers, but where I feel a defence is complex and requires a lawyer I would say this.
I understand that not every person can afford £10,000 in legal fees (although our fee is considerably lower) and that is why I give out free advice over the phone and upon the forum to try and let people know the options they have.
Hopefully you will reconsider this 1 star review which seems incredibly harsh and unfair.