Based on a large study of legal professional practice, involving nearly 50 solicitors' firms, this book offers a critical examination of the practices and organization of defence lawyers in Britain - from the moment of initial contact through to the preparation and presentation of defendants.

Defence solicitors in criminal cases - an introduction; organization and characteristics of criminal firms; the culture of criminal defence; pre-interrogation advice; advisors at interrogation; at the office - getting the client's story; the solicitor at court - client management and bail hearings; the solicitor at court - plea and mitigation; contested trials in Magistrates' Courts; solicitors, barristers and the Crown Court. Appendix: growth in criminal legal representation and legal aid in Magistrates' Courts, 1964-1990.

`Disturbing conclusions ... Standing Accused is powerful evidence of the extent to which the client is dependent on lawyers ... the book identifies fundamental concerns about the provision of legal service which need to be addressed. ' David Pannick QC, The Times `The book really is compulsive reading for anyone engaged in criminal defence work. ' The Lawyer `Standing Accused makes out a prima facie case against the existing arrangements, calls into question the roseate view commonly taken of the virtues of legal representation in criminal cases, and that anyone who reads this book will be driven to ponder further the professional standards and philosophy which ought to underpin a system of criminal defence. It is a significant and unsettling work. ' Cambridge Law Journal `Standing Accused is powerful evidence of the extent to which the client is dependent on Lawyers ... the book identifies fundamental concerns about the provision of legal service which need to be addressed. ' The Times `a compelling and characteristically provocative research report which is a credit to all concerned: the researchers and authors for their hard work, and Oxford University Press for conceiving its Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice series sufficiently broadly to include empirical studies ... Standing Accused is an impressive and disturbing work which will intrigue and entertain and dismay the reader ... It does ... stand a good chance of becomming a sociological classic; and in the meantime the book's accessible style and intelligent use of vivid empirical material ought to commend it to a wider audience than the "lawyers, scholars and professionals interested in the administration of justice" for whom the publishers (justifiably) assert that Standing Accused is compulsory reading ' Law Quarterly Review `This is a timely, important and salutary book. ' LCCJ Newsletter