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• Criminal Law

• • Overview

  Put Simply...

  Criminal law ranges from small misdemeanours to big heinous crimes, frauds and white-collar crime. It involves international relations and multiple jurisdictional rules when it comes to issues such as extradition, money-laundering, cross-border crimes and terrorism. Typical work is of a contentious nature with lots of advocacy.
  
  The criminal justice system is a large and well-organised hierarchy and presents several avenues if you are interested in pursuing a career in criminal law. Criminal law lawyers work either on the prosecution side or defend accused clients. Legal proceedings for lesser crimes such as traffic violations, theft, assault, drugs, etc are conducted in magistrates’ courts, while bigger crimes such as murder, armed robbery, sexual crimes, etc are presented in the Crown Courts.
  
  Fraud and other white-collar crimes are complex cases involving substantial expertise in business, finance and regulatory non-compliance. Generally, only a few firms tend to specialize in such matters, while the average criminal lawyer may be more active in managing general crime cases.

  What is involved in Criminal Law?

  Opportunities are available for both private and public practice. The latter includes government service with either the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or the Public Defender Service (PDS). In private practice, one can work for specialist firms handling white collar crime, or independently represent individuals and companies as a defence lawyer.
  
  Lawyers will usually work on the case from beginning to end – from the filing of a case, investigation, visiting police stations and prisons, taking witness statements, going through medical reports, liaising with court personnel, the police department, probation officers, filing pleas and motions before the presiding court, and conduct the eventual trial, if that part is not being performed by a barrister.
  Post sentencing, you can get to work on appeals at higher judicial levels. Handling white collar crime cases will involve a lot of paperwork and research. As such, you must always be current with business trends, legislation and compliance requirements.
  
  Much of the activity in handling such cases can involve liaising with peers and judicial authorities from other jurisdictions, taking care of extradition claims or dealing with the fall-out of delinquency or criminal negligence. Ancillary tasks will include following the money trail, battling with corruption and bureaucracy, monopolies and restrictive trade practices and running through copious amounts of documentation.

  What is needed for Criminal Law?

  To be a criminal lawyer, you should be street-smart, quick on your feet and have a thorough understanding of criminal law and procedure and functioning of the judicial system. You should also be able to handle large volumes of work and perform under pressure.
  
  Communication and negotiation skills need to be top-notch and you need to have a flair for dealing with different kinds of people. You will need to get accustomed to working long and unconventional hours, lots of hard work, careful attention to detail, and above all patience.
  Many of the clients a criminal lawyer deals with may be dangerous, mentally unstable, drug addicts, killers and chronic offenders, so it becomes crucial that you are able to set aside personal prejudices and judgment, and take an objective and clinical approach in handling such people.
  
  Crime, by its very nature, carries a lot of notoriety and ill-will, so it is important for a lawyer to maintain absolute discretion when it comes to clients; honesty and trustworthiness are paramount.

  Current Climate for Criminal Law?

  Recent trends in criminal law include a growing incidence of terrorism-related crimes, money-laundering, transnational crime syndicates and cartels just to list a few. On the legislative and regulatory fronts, developments include the introduction of The Corporate Manslaughter Act – which makes top business management liable for prosecution for failing to uphold health & safety obligations.
  
  Other changes in this field are enacting provisions to eliminate trials by jury for white-collar crimes, drastic changes in legal aid funding, and the introduction of a ‘victim’s personal statement’.
  
  

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