Very early in my career – that is, in the mid-1960s – the wife of a client turned up after he had been acquitted and pushed an envelope across the desk saying, ‘Give that to Mr Smith [his counsel], will you? It’s £400.’
The case had been legal aid and the client was due up on another charge in the next week or so. I took the envelope to Smith’s chambers and was asked what was in it. ‘I don’t know but I believe it’s £400’ (just under £8,000 in today’s money). At Maidstone Quarter Sessions solicitors’ costs in run-of-the-mill cases were assessed by the clerk on a weight basis while the jury was out. He would hold the file in his hands and say £20. The reply was, ‘Oh sir, couldn’t you make it £25?’ The fees were paid there and then in cash.
Smith didn’t open the envelope but pushed it back, saying: ‘Tell her, I can’t accept it.’ I’ve always admired him for it particularly because, when he and the client’s wife met on the next case, he explained why he could not. And this was at a time when the cab-rank rule was held in abeyance and money was sloshing around the Temple, with some high-priced counsel wanting fees in cash.
Sometimes briefs were marked with a red star to indicate a donation had to be made to the recommending police officer.
It was quite common for firms to pay police contacts. One of the first questions asked of me when I interviewed a potential assistant solicitor – with a view to partnership as they say – was ‘What’s your going rate for a police introduction?’ He later opened his own, very successful practice.
And this all too cosy relationship did not just operate in the cities. A friend, then employed in the home counties where the police instructed local solicitors to prosecute, but this time defending, gave an officer a working over and obtained an acquittal. He was hardly through the office door when the senior partner sent for him. Instead of congratulating my friend he said there had been a complaint. He had been told that if the firm wanted more police work this sort of cross-examination was not to happen again. One of the reasons for the founding of the CPS.
James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor
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