advice on changing solicitor/barrister?

[angel5879]

My husband was charged of a section 18, we tried to drop to section 20 but CPS would not. We were given 10 mins to make a decision and barrister advised guilty starts from 4 years not guilty woudl be six. My husband pleaded guilty really because i think teh times scared us and we did not expect this. He was sent to prison on judges remand last week - we are a young family with children. There was CCTV footage from the pub. The man who he assaulted has said his vision may be permantly blurry however ( i know my husband done wrong by the way) he is continuing to work up ladders and drive ( he is a roofer). I know what has happened was wrong however my husband has no voilence on his record and got caught up in a drunken fight. My real question is i feel our barrister has not advised us correctly and we have since had no communication, he advised he will not visit my husband in prison and will talk to him on teh day of sentencing. is this normal? Any help would be appreciated as Im lost and no one seems to be helping or giving me right advice. I understand he will have to serve a prison sentence but I need to ensure I have done everything possible to make sure it is in line with what he has done and that I have done everything possible to help and at the moment i feel changing barrister may be solution. Will it hurt the case to change this far down the line? kind regards

[ummmm]

If your husband is guilty then the solicitor gave him the correct advice.

[angel5879]

I believe he was guilty of section 20 but not 18 as their was no intent. however as i dont think it was explained to us right on the day and he went guilty cos of the lower sentence when i think a trial may have shown it shold of been section 20 Im asking can it hurt things to try and change solicitor before sentencing? or could this even help anything now he has already pleaded guilty?

[EDDIE51]

Your husband has pleaded guilty so there is very little you can do now , sorry.
Changing solicitor will do nothing as it is now down to the Judge to decide on the sentence and the solicitor has nothing to do with it.
Section 18 is a very serious offence , only 1 step down from attempted murder !
A prison sentence is always given for a S18 unless there are VERY exceptional circumstances , as your husband pleaded guilty he will get 1/3rd off whatever sentence he recieves , so if he gets 6 years it will be reduced to 4.
Then any sentence of 4 years or less has automatic release on licence at the half way point.
So let us say for example that your husband gets a sentence of 4 years , the 1/3rd reduction for a guilty plea reduces that by just over 14 months so it is down to 2 years 10 months then the halfway release will be at 2 years 5 months.
I am not saying that 4 years is what he will get just trying to give you examples of what can happen. To get a better idea of the possible sentence we need more informaion about what happened and what led up to it.
But I will say that 6 years for a 1st offence does seem on the high side unless it was a very serious case. But if as you say he hit someone so hard that the other man is going to have a permanent sight defect which will effect his career that could be classes as very serious. Please come back with more information and I hope we can be more helpfull.

[EDDIE51]

Sorry , just reread my post and it should say 'release at the halfway point will be 1 year 5 months'.Sorry for the mistake.

[angel5879]

Thank you so much for your reply, I will not waste any further money on another solicitor then as this has cost us so much already. Basically it was a fight that broke out in a pub in teh early hours one morning the man who he hit had a fractired eye socket and has since put in additional medical info to say his vision may be permanantly effected that with CCTV footage from the pub showing my husband hitting him is what they have against him. However although we know it is wrong ( and believe me no one is more sorry than my husband)there was no intent there at all which is why we wanted the section 20. He did not go out loking for trouble - i dont understand the intent part! Barrister advised by pleading guilty to section 18 sentence wud start from 4 years which he done as was worried with cctv a jury wud convict him anyway and it would then start from 6 yrs. I just want to make sure i have done everything possible to help him get the lowest sentence possible. based on what you have said changing solicitor wont help so what else can i do? So far I have a reference form every landlord where we live even the place where the fight was which all say he normally calm person and never been in trouble before, his employer which shows him of good character and that they will hold his job open if sentence not too long, my husband has wrote a letter to teh judge, teh directors from a local charity where he also volunteers have also wrote a ref and while on remand he has been a model prisoner working full time and doing every possible course etc available. this happened on 17h august so he done up until 25th nov on night curfew to allow him to continue to work. on 25th nov he pleaded guilty and was put on judges remand. I will also write a letter to the judge (any tips on this?). I just feel helpless and as we are new to this we do not understand the system and no one at the solicitors seems to answer my questions. Ur advise really is appreciated as the worry of this along with financial stuff and dealing with children losing their father, especially at this time of year is difficult :-)

[angel5879]

also with section 18 can they give less than 4 years or is this the starting point? It is probably best to prepare for worst possible situation then anything less is a bonus. Is sentence is on Jan 12th. thanks

[angel5879]

also on another note the man who he injured's friend who is was out drinking with him has actually put a statement in for my husbands defence to say that (the guy who he hit) was verbally abusing him and "winding him up" all night. So this shows the reason why the fight broke out andthat it was clearly not my husbands fault however he did hit him eventually and cause this damage.

[EDDIE51]

This is a difficult one. On the face of it just punching another man in a fight is not a S18 , as you say that needs 'intent'.
I now think you may have been given poor advice . I would at least talk to another solicitor about that side of it. As I said at first a guilty plea means that the defendant accepts all of the prosecutions case so as he has pleaded guilty it does not leave much room for manouver.
There is an AB contributer called New Judge , he would be the best person to answer this , hopefully he will see this thread and give us a reply.

[angel5879]

thank you. lookin back at it now he should have said not guilt and gone to trial, we had literally 30 min max with the barrister before the court to discuss this and he simply told us the timeframe involved and he had to make a decision. Obviously when you are talking about such long times we were panicing and he said guilty on this charge to get a lower sentence. once again thanks

[EDDIE51]

The judge is not a fool, he will look at all the factors involved including all the lettersof support , make sure the judge knows that you were rushed into a guilty plea as that will need to be taken into consideration.
On the posative side all time spent on remand will be taken off what ever sentence is handed down, in addition to the 1/3rd reduction for a guilty plea.
Your husband could get sentence at the lower end of the scale possiby 3 years. I know it sounds a lot but with the time on remand removed and the 1/3rd reduction plus the release at the halfway point he could be back home in under a year.
I am trying to be realistic here and not give you false hope , you must expect a prison sentence, but I hope it will be under 3 years before the deductions.
Best wishes for the hearing let us know how it goes.

[angel5879]

Thank you - I will advise him to mention in his pre sentence reports meeting that he feels the decision was rushed etc so then we can be sure the judge will read these