Mr Birtwistle was a duty solicitor that represented me last minute. I have to say at the time he was excellent and really listened and clearly communicated.

I was asked to confirm going forward he would be acting on my behalf and he agreed to do this. In the hearing he was provided with the dates of the of the trial. After five weeks of me trying to get hold of him, I finally received an email advising that he could no longer represent me.

This in itself meant that from having nine weeks to provide a defence I now had four. And in those four weeks I also now need to find new representation. To Mr Birtwistle‘s defence he advised me he had found someone who was available to take the case. And after dealing with the person he suggested I can understand why they were so readily available.

However the person he recommended then advised me that Mr Birtwistle for some inexplicable reason had failed to provide him with not only the dates of the trial, but also the duration. And that solicitor then advised me they were unable to attend those dates.

This left me with no representation, and less than a week before the hearing. I reached out to Mr Birtwistle on multiple occasions, and never received a response. You can imagine my surprise when I had attended court I need to see Mr Birtwistle sat there. Ironically in that hearing I was asked by the magistrates about representation and solicitors. At that point Mr Birtwistle exited.

Now as Mr Birtwistle has repeatedly declined to respond to any communication I can’t answer on his behalf. I can say that on first impression I thought he was a decent reputable solicitor. I can no longer have that opinion based on the feedback from the client he passed me over to represent me claiming Mr Birtwistle provided him with no information surrounding dates and durations. And of course not forgetting that Mr Birtwistle was given an opportunity to answer any questions today it has ignored all of them. And that to Mr Birtwistle surprisingly stepping out of court The moment the conversation of representation came up by the magistrates and I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

What I have learnt is that honesty and integrity play a very small part of these days within the justice and legal system, and all too often those who are there to help support and assist you Are really only there to help themselves knowing that you have very little come back when they leave you in a great big pile of mess that they may not have created, but the lack of professionalism have certainly added to.