G Y.
2/5
Low levels of administrative competence left me feeling like I had chosen the wrong people to take up my case. I was given no indication of whether or not I would qualify for legal aid, even though I'm sure they know what the criteria are. When the legal aid board rejected my application for legal aid, MTM emailed me a copy of the appeal application document, even though it specifically says in the document that they are legally required to print it off and give it to their client. When I emailed them to explain that I do not have a printer and need it to be posted, I received no reply. In the end I had to send 3 emails before I finally got a response. The appeal failed too so I had to pay the legal fees. Even now I don't know why I wasn't eligible for legal aid. All I was told was "No". When I called them to try to pay MTM I was told that "only the solicitors can take payments" and that my appointed solicitor was on holiday until the following week. I called on the Monday and was then told that it wasn't just the solicitors that could take payment and they didn't know why I would have been told that.
A date was set for the "intermediate diet" where MTM would officially inform the court that I intended to plead not guilty. I expected to be given an update either that day after the hearing or the day after. I received nothing. When I contacted them to chase them up for info I was told that my solicitor was on holiday (again) and so I arranged for him to call me. This is 2 days before the case is due to happen and this is the first real discussion about my case with my solicitor other than the very first 15 minute introductory call. We have had no discussion about strategy, whether or not I will need to testify etc. In the end my case is thrown out and I never need to attend. So thanks MTM for that at least, but paying £720 for a solicitor to have a quick chat with the judge for a case that should never have even reached this stage leaves a bitter taste (pretty sure the police officer was just being vindictive. He knew there was insufficient evidence to prosecute but had started shouting and swearing at me at my home because the conversation didn't go the way he wanted it to, so he referred the case to the courts just to cause me trouble). Representing yourself in a criminal case is never a good idea, but I can't see much value added by the lawyers in this case. I definitely won't engage the services of MTM ever again. Bad service is one thing, but when you are relying on these people to decide your fate and have paid them a pretty penny to do so, it is absolutely unacceptable.
One thing I have learned from all this though is that if the police want to cause you grief they can get the Crown Prosecution Service to haul you into the legal system and cause you financial hardship because they know that you will need to pay for lawyers before your case even gets to court. The CPS will go along with the police officers initially so you can be taken to court before anyone has even looked at the evidence. Innocent until proven guilty doesn't stop police officers from handing out their own style of vigilante justice against people that irritate them.
