new judge advice

[jayney 12]

hi recently i asked advice for my son facing a section 39 for pushing a drunken male away fro him. new judge advised us to seek legal help and that y son did not have to plead guilty, he was in court on tuesday and on his own soliitors advice plead not guilty the case has now been set for trial in july, what i would like to know is that as there is no true evidence against my son and no one not even the so-called victim sees to know what happened their is no other witnesses except for witnesses for my son to say that it never happened as claimed by the police, all the police have is an admission from my son that he pushed this lad out of his way so they could leave not that he was rendered unconcous as they stated, the legal eagle we have hired is going to cost in the region of �1000 to 1500 to clear my sons name if when or even if this comes to a trial is their anyway he can claim the legal costs back from the police for bringing this trumped up charge in the first place

[Malak8924]

ok - lets break this down.

S.39 OAP - a s.39 is a battery offence, which, unlawful touching is enough to commit a battery. So, yes - if your son pushed the 'victim' out of the way, he is guilty of a s.39

HOWEVER - no Magistrate in this country is going to hand down a custodinal sentence for a simple push, this is where the 'rendering unconcous' bits comes into play.

If i've read it correctly, and please state otherwise if I haven't -

The Police had a admission off your son for pushing the guy out of the way, and your son has a witness of this taking place.

Yet, no-one is a witness to the 'victim' falling as a result of the push and being left unconscious....

The CPS, when considering a case, asks two questions;

1. Is there enough evidence to bring a sucessful conviction.
2. Is it in the interest of the general public to bring this case to court and try to secure a conviction.

This case comes down to two things, your son's word against the lad's. Your son has one credible witness, whereas the Police has none, not even the victim -

so, from my studies of the law, I would say that this case will never go to trial, in short there is nothing to worry about.

However, if it does, I would suggest taking the legal advice and paying the fee for the soilictor.

Unfortunalty, I don't think you can get the fees back from the police either 1.) without a long process or 2.) at all.

All the best anyway though, hopefully I've been some form of help.

Marcus