Criminal Law Solicitor in Rathdrum

What a charge or summons from Rathdrum usually means

Most of the enquiries we get from this part of County Wicklow concern road traffic matters, public order incidents, or something arising out of a garda station interview. Some people contact us before they have been charged at all, having been asked to attend a station for questioning, and in that situation it is worth getting advice before you go in rather than afterwards. Others get in touch once a summons has already arrived in the post, which is more common for road traffic and minor public order matters.

Because Rathdrum has no District Court of its own, a case connected to the town is generally listed at whichever County Wicklow venue covers that end of the county, most often Arklow Courthouse for District Court matters, with Bray Courthouse dealing with anything sent forward to the Circuit Court. We can confirm which venue applies once we know the detail of the charge, and we represent clients at both.

Working out the detail before the court date is fixed

Once we know what you are charged with, we set about gathering what we need: the charge sheet or summons itself, any garda notes or statements you may have been given, and your own account of what happened while it is still fresh. For more serious matters that are likely to be sent forward for trial, that early groundwork matters a good deal more, because the strategy for a Circuit Court case is built in the weeks after the charge, not the week before the hearing.

If legal aid is a factor, we can talk you through how the application works in court and what the judge will want to know about your means and the seriousness of the charge. None of this needs to be decided on a first call. The initial conversation is simply to understand your situation; if you then want us to act, we set out the terms in a letter of engagement before anything else happens.

Acting for people in Rathdrum, Ballinaclash and the Avonmore valley

We take cases from across this part of south County Wicklow, including Rathdrum itself and the smaller villages around it such as Ballinaclash, about four kilometres away, and Ballinacor and Glenealy, each roughly seven kilometres out. Rathdrum sits some fourteen kilometres south-west of Wicklow town, within County Wicklow in the Leinster circuit, and cases from this whole stretch tend to run through the same County Wicklow court system regardless of which village they started in.

Consultations can be arranged at our Kilkenny office, by phone or by video, so you do not need to travel to see us before a court date is even set. If you would rather meet in person, that can be arranged too; the point is to make the first step easy, not to add another journey to an already stressful week.