Can someone with a legal know how can help

[timetofight]

hi there, i am the wife of a convicted person and I could really do with some help.
My oh was convicted of offences that date back some 28 years when he was aged 12-14yrs old he is now 40+.
and he has been in prison now for around 15mths.
It has no come to our attention recently that people who could have been called as defence witnesses for my oh were not even spoken to by his solicitor and we really think the evidence from these people could have changed how his trial went.
We did appeal his conviction based on a legal matter and were unsuccesful - basically the lawyer who represented my husband was shredded in the appeal judges report sayying it should never have reached appeal stage at all as his defence was wrong for the reason for appeal, and this pretty much confirmed what we thought at the time he wasn't doing a good job of defending my oh.
I wonder if anyone on here has any advise on how we go about having his case reviewed and instructing a new solicitor to look over everything and see if we can have a 2nd appeal based on this new witness.
We believe my oh was misrepresented and his lawyer did the bare minimum to defend him. We were receiving legal aid and being from a small town our options were limited so we were very misguided and of course extremely afraid in the whole process so clung onto the word of a lawyer who was offered to us.
We are in scotland if that helps and I know the legal system is different here but any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[soulbug]

This is important was he 12 to under 14 years of age ?

As part of his defence did they use the doctorine of "Doli Incapax" ?

I was arrested and I had to goto court,your other halfs case has some similarities,age and length of time before the police came knocking.

[soulbug]

Please see the link below to my post from sometime ago with regards to Doli Incapax.

http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/s...pax&highlight=

Please note Doli Incapx can legally be applied retrospectively as any offences before 1998 it would apply based on his age, regardless of it been abolished after 1998, if you other half did not use it as part of his defence, then it is very important and you need to contact a more compentent legal team.

ANYONE that tells you that Doli Incapax does not apply IS wrong....unless your O.H was proved that knew right from wrong at the ages he is alleged to commited the offences, Which in my case the judge rightly pointed out is impossible to do.

If your legal team require a copy of the judges summing up in my case including all its spelling mistakes, then ask them to contact me and I will send them a copy, it points out all the points that are required.

[timetofight]

Hi

Please see the link below to my post from sometime ago with regards to Doli Incapax.

http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/s...pax&highlight=

Please note Doli Incapx can legally be applied retrospectively as any offences before 1998 it would apply based on his age, regardless of it been abolished after 1998, if you other half did not use it as part of his defence, then it is very important and you need to contact a more compentent legal team.

ANYONE that tells you that Doli Incapax does not apply IS wrong....unless your O.H was proved that knew right from wrong at the ages he is alleged to commited the offences, Which in my case the judge rightly pointed out is impossible to do.

If your legal team require a copy of the judges summing up in my case including all its spelling mistakes, then ask them to contact me and I will send them a copy, it points out all the points that are required.

I spent a very long time on here lurking and reading before my OH trial and read about DIC but as far as I am aware it doesn't apply in Scotland. :-( so it wasn't used.

[Peter1975]

Hello there and a sad welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid there are no legally qualified people here and your best bet is to instruct a new lawyer to help you.

The little I ( think) I know about the difficult appeals process can be written on the back of a postage stamp - and an English postage stamp at that.

The law in Scotland is very different to down here.

What I imagine is the same however is a lack of legal aid for getting an appeal looked at properly. You may need to pay privately and there is no guarantee that grounds will be found.

If you lack funds ( as most of us do ) then you could approach the SCCRC without a lawyer ( see link below ) or perhaps see if there is an innocence project that might help. ( I can't think of any off the top of my head )

http://www.sccrc.co.uk/




I'm sorry that I can't be of more help.

[timetofight]

thanks

Hi thanks all for replies.
I am aware of the SCCRC and think we will go down that route but first we need to know what the stateable grounds of review are and unfortunately there website doesn't list these so have sent an enquiry to them for this info. I think we are in a financial position to be able to instruct an independent solicitor to look over my husbands file and see if they can find "stateable" grounds for us to go to SCCRC with.

I spoke with my in laws today regarding my oh's case and looking at a review to ask for financial help. I was shocked to learn from them just today that altho they attended my oh's solicitors office and were interviewed as possible witnesses to defend there son, until I told them today, they did not know their son was facing accusation of providing drink and drugs to the "victims" to subdue them when he was 12 years old!!
based on this I cant help thinking the lawyer didn't do a good job of asking them questions to establish if they could help defend there son!! so no surprise they were never called as defense witnesses! His lawyer was of opinion less witnesses means shorter trial I think.
Had inlaws known this was an accusation they could have and would have told the court how unlikely this was due to location and financial constraints.
We did not tell his parent this was part of his charges at the time as we didn't want to be seen to be interfering with witnesses.

can anyone recommend a very good solicitor to review OH's case and see if we meet criterial for SCCRC?? like I said we can pay private for this if needed.

[Peter1975]

I'm afraid that we don't have too many recommendations in Scotland and I am hesitant to put forward a name based on a single recommendation anyway but I have just asked a PAFAA member that is currently in the process of applying to the SCCRC and also making a complaint about incompetent representation to the SLCC and she is happy to recommend her new lawyer who was apparently quite angry with the trial solicitors!

His name is David Frew and he is DGF Solictors based in Glasgow.

0141 221 2348
www.dgfsolictors.co.uk
Email : info@dgfsolictors.co.uk


Alternatively, All of the solicitors recommended by daftmoo members are plotted on this google map :

[timetofight]

thanks

I'm afraid that we don't have too many recommendations in Scotland and I am hesitant to put forward a name based on a single recommendation anyway but I have just asked a PAFAA member that is currently in the process of applying to the SCCRC and also making a complaint about incompetent representation to the SLCC and she is happy to recommend her new lawyer who was apparently quite angry with the trial solicitors!

His name is David Frew and he is DGF Solictors based in Glasgow.

0141 221 2348
www.dgfsolictors.co.uk
Email : info@dgfsolictors.co.uk


Alternatively, All of the solicitors recommended by daftmoo members are plotted on this google map :

Thank you so much I will give this guy a try and also fire of a couple emails and see if someone else recommended will take us on for a review.

[Peter1975]

You're welcome. I hope someone can help.

What I will say is that in E&W, the majority of successful appeals tend to be because of legal errors and if you were down here I would recommend getting a transcript of the judges summing up as a starting point.

Insufficiently instructing a jury on the relevant parts of the law such as doli incapax would indeed be a ground for appeal as soulbug wisely states but I don't know if there is any equivalent up in Scotland.

I will also thank SB for reminding me of doli incapax! - a law that should never have been abolished!

[soulbug]

I spent a very long time on here lurking and reading before my OH trial and read about DIC but as far as I am aware it doesn't apply in Scotland. :-( so it wasn't used.

Hi Please accept my apologies , I had not considered you was not in England, in England Doli Incapax was changed in 1989, but regardlessly of the year of arrest in the England if a person is accused of something 1989 and before and the accused was below 14 then Doli Incapax has to be considered.

My advice would be to ask a solicitor or try to find out if during the period your OH was found guilty during his childhood years then you may find there is something there, If there was in the England there is a possibility of something simiar in Scotland at the time.

Please try to find out, It could be very important.