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You may wish to complete our PRE-TRIAL – PRELIMINARY CASE INFORMATION QUESTIONNAIRE, which will help us to possibly help you.
1. Read the entire case papers, and interview you.
2. Based upon our knowledge of the case, we lay out the following plans:
A: Develop a “Theory of the Case”;
B: Develop an Investigation Plan;
C: Develop an Expert Witness Plan;
D: Build a file to present to your instructing solicitor.
3. We then brief your instructing solicitor necessary to accomplish your goals.
In more detail:
A: Theory of the Case
Alibis and the exposure of inconsistent statements, do not win serious arrestable offence cases. A jury can be very forgiving of someone who makes an allegation of a serious nature and those witnesses’ who give evidence of the accuser’s behalf, the jury can put it down as factual errors. They as themselves will think: “If it didn’t happen, why is the witness saying this?” This is where our Theory of the Case is most important. After our investigation is completed, your solicitor’s medical and mental health research on the accuser is done, our synopsis is written and we know what is or is not admissible, we double our efforts on the Theory of the Case. Again, this provides a rational jury with the needs to really understand that the allegations are false.
B: Investigation Plan / Discovery Plan
After establishing a tentative Theory of the Case we create a plan concerning which witnesses should be interviewed and on what issues. We also create a plan of what documents and evidence needs to be gathered.
Investigations in a serious offence case are more difficult than in other areas of criminal law. The witnesses are reluctant to talk and don’t want to get involved. They have information that is relevant to the relationships between the parties and don’t realise its significance.
Our investigators are trained in “People Skill” methods of interviewing. It is totally different than police interviews or interrogations.
C: Expert Witness Plan
After learning the facts and developing a cogent theory of the case, we will know if the prosecution is going to use expert witnesses against you.
The expert witness plan identifies the issues that will be presented to the prosecution and the way our group of experts will deal with it. We always base our expert evidence on the research articles on the issues.
Because we only deal in serious offence cases, we provide the research needed by our experts to handle the issues in your case. We have over 1000 research articles on these issues in our library and it is constantly growing. We also have access to researchers that can help stay on top of cutting edge science.
D: Build your file
We tailor your file to the law. We understand the legal issues in these cases and specifically tailor to our legal system.
We litigate nationally and we work to help your counsel understand the cutting edge of science and law that applies to your circumstances.
The above plan is designed to help keep the prejudicial, irrelevant evidence against you out. It is also designed to make sure that reliable – scientific defence evidence in.