Pressure

When clients did not react to subtle encouragement, many lawyers adopted a more explicit approach. In the majority of such cases - including those rare few in which the lawyer eventually accepted the client's story and a trial date was set - there was a stage when lawyers exerted tangible pressure on a client.

Those lawyers who sought to exert pressure were, then, in a potentially difficult position. One method of applying pressure without doing so too overtly was to use scare tactics or inducements. This can be seen in the following extracts from consul­tations at court, wherein the client was not given the opportunity to express their views before being warned off anything other than the guilty plea the lawyer appeared to favour:

[Lawyer] So, how are we pleading? Oh, I should warn you that the judge you'll be appear­ing before is very tough on public order offences. He's also very tough on breaches, and he's been sending people down all day for failures to surrender.

[Client] Oh, right. I wanted to go not guilty, I didn't do anything.

[Lawyer] I think you need to think very carefully about this before you come to a decision. There might be a deal on the table.

(Harold, partner, and Mitchell Johnson, client, Radford Hope, OR)

So, how are we going to proceed? Obviously, ifthere was a guilty plea today you would be given credit and any sentence you receive would be reduced.

(Bob, solicitor, Radford Hope, OR) This encouragement even went so far as to contravene the convention that a lawyer should not directly ask their client whether they are guilty. Lawyers who want to go to trial are generally loath to risk being explicitly told of their client’s guilt; their attempt to put the prosecution to proof would be hampered, and compromised, by such disclosure. However, lawyers in this study, keen to conclude a case quickly, showed little compunction about doing so if they felt the client needed to be pushed, as in the following:

Look, mate, you just need to plead guilty. You did it, didn’t you? No messing around. (Windom, solicitor, Radford Hope, OR)

My colleague tells me you aren’t sure about plea. I’m not sure why, bit of a waste of time. It seems to me that you have to plead guilty. You will plead guilty, won’t you?

(Ben, partner, Radcliffe and Musk, OR) Right, so it’s four thefts. You did it, yeah? If you say yes, we can get it over with nice and quickly. There’s no need to mess about.

(Ed, senior partner, Swining MacSage, OR) Seemingly aware of the need to not say something that could later be used against them, some lawyers seemed somewhat uncomfortable in my presence during such interactions. I can only speculate what happened on the occasions when particular lawyers, from Swining MacSage, asked me to leave the room on some errand or other, and I would usually return to find a client had changed his plea to guilty.

It was only infrequently that I saw lawyers lose their cool and transparently tell clients to plead guilty, as reflected by the following examples:

Look, you can do nothing but accept it. You really should just plead guilty. Listen to what I’m telling you.

(Leland, solicitor, Radford Hope, OR)

[Clerk] How do you plead?

[Client] Not Guilty.

[Lawyer] Guilty!

[Client] I did not assault her.

[Lawyer] Look, if you plead guilty, then I’ll explain why later, okay? Trust me.

(Alfred Bester, magistrates' clerk, Matthew Hayden, client, and Thomas, partner, Swining MacSage, OR - at the beginning of the hearing, as magistrates sought to discern the client's plea)

While usually careful to maintain their professional persona in the presence of cli­ents, most lawyers displayed no embarrassment about revealing their guilty plea ethos to their peers, as shown by these extracts from both sides of the Radical/ Sausage Factory divide:

[Lawyer One] Now, you might wonder why I have this computer? It's to show him just what he has done.

[Lawyer Two] Is the whole assault on there?

[Lawyer One] Oh yes. And I'll make sure he sees it all too! Properly.

(Harold, partner, and Catherine, solicitor, Radford Hope, OR - on the way to the Magistrates’ Court for a trial he hoped to ‘crack’)

Hopefully, I'll be able to crack this trial - it isn't anything. Then I can come and help you okay?

(Shelly, solicitor, Radcliffe and Musk, OR)

Our job today will just be persuading the client to plead guilty. It's an assault. So, really, our job today is to explain to him that there's no point in having a trial and he might as well plead guilty. He's usually alright, usually listens.

(Ed, senior partner, Swining MacSage, OR)

This openness extended to their relations with the prosecution.