Do the police have to notify a solicitor once case goes to CPS?
Notifications OFF
I'd be interested to know if it's the norm to notify someone when their case goes to CPS? Our son, his solicitor, his children's social worker and even her team leader are trying to get the OIC to confirm that after assuring the social worker last November that it was almost ready and she would let her know as soon as it was sent off to CPS, nobody has had any update and the OIC ignores attempts to speak to her.
We want to know for our own mental preparation but also so that we can plan when to talk to our grandchildren about what their father has done and prepare them for the outcome without having a tricky and upsetting conversation and then a long anxious wait for them to know what is going to happen. These children have already had many months of not knowing if they were going to stay with their mother or come to live with us because of delays in the family court hearing and it understandably unsettled them so we don't want another long wait in a limbo of not knowing, for the protection of their mental health. The OIC knows all this but is still refusing to give anyone any information. We assume that it's because she spun a positive picture when put on the spot back in November and would rather avoid us than have to admit that - but who knows?! Ironic that her role is to protect children but in this case doesn't seem to care about them.
Of course if letting people know (maybe not us or our son but definitely his solicitor and any SS professionals who ask) is only a courtesy and not an obligation, then I guess the OIC is just being unhelpful and inconsiderate of the situation regarding our grandchildren so we just have to suck it up!
We want to know for our own mental preparation but also so that we can plan when to talk to our grandchildren about what their father has done and prepare them for the outcome without having a tricky and upsetting conversation and then a long anxious wait for them to know what is going to happen. These children have already had many months of not knowing if they were going to stay with their mother or come to live with us because of delays in the family court hearing and it understandably unsettled them so we don't want another long wait in a limbo of not knowing, for the protection of their mental health. The OIC knows all this but is still refusing to give anyone any information. We assume that it's because she spun a positive picture when put on the spot back in November and would rather avoid us than have to admit that - but who knows?! Ironic that her role is to protect children but in this case doesn't seem to care about them.
Of course if letting people know (maybe not us or our son but definitely his solicitor and any SS professionals who ask) is only a courtesy and not an obligation, then I guess the OIC is just being unhelpful and inconsiderate of the situation regarding our grandchildren so we just have to suck it up!
It is almost certainly not an obligation to inform anyone when a case goes to CPS. Many people do not employ a solicitor until they get charges, and that happens after it comes back from CPS.
Communication by the OIC seems to a huge problem across the whole country. I put it down to high workloads rather than being deliberately obstructive.
The only exception seem to be Lincolnshire where they have a dedicated officer to help the families. Other areas are supposed to be looking at this, but will take ages for it to be rolled out across the country.
Communication by the OIC seems to a huge problem across the whole country. I put it down to high workloads rather than being deliberately obstructive.
The only exception seem to be Lincolnshire where they have a dedicated officer to help the families. Other areas are supposed to be looking at this, but will take ages for it to be rolled out across the country.
That's what I suspected and apprecoate high workloads - but the only time we have had any feedback from the OIC is when she has had to give updates at Child protection meetings/reviews and always implied that things were making good progress. This has been since we were only a few months in and after another couple of years of the same (plus a couple of other 'incidents') I'm afraid we have lost confidence in any professionalism. My mum used to say whenever I told a tall story "and the band played 'believe it if you like'" which is what I have become tempted to say - but of course I don't as we are all so scared of making things worse which I think is part of the problem.
I lost all confidence in 'my' OIC's competence on the day the police turned up at our door, when they left behind OH's laptop (sitting in the middle of our bedroom floor) and took mine by mistake. I had to ring them up to come and get it when I noticed an hour later. Now they managed to 'corrupt' his phone while it was in their custody for forensics. So yes, the lower your expectations the better sadly.
This + what I've read on here makes me wonder about recruitment to these roles? I can understand no one wanting to do this job and it potentially being low status within policing, so I wonder if it isn't exactly the best & brightest? Also it must be horribly traumatic. I can completely understand OICs developing a blanket personal dislike for everyone they have to deal with.
This + what I've read on here makes me wonder about recruitment to these roles? I can understand no one wanting to do this job and it potentially being low status within policing, so I wonder if it isn't exactly the best & brightest? Also it must be horribly traumatic. I can completely understand OICs developing a blanket personal dislike for everyone they have to deal with.
Sad&Scared - my husband is a retired police officer and his opinion is actually that in order to get promoted faster ambitious police officers will chop and change whichever department they are in to get as much experience as they can under their belts. Not sure how this applies to ours as she has been on this team the whole time but generally it wouldn't help with cases if they are handled by a string of people one after another - a bit like how many of us experience many changes of SWs which doesn't help a case. I'm sorry about your experiences - our son has had several occasions where because of an error at their end the police have accused him of witholding correct information. It was so stressful that he found a solicitor just to be an intermediary but has recently spent several weeks with his solicitor saying the OIC wants a phone passcode which he swore he didn't have and it's now been discovered that it's not his phone. That has wasted such a lot of time and was caused by sheer carelessness. It is so frustrating but we hope that the solicitor can point this out to the judge in the context of how it's delayed a conclusion to the case......the only ray of light is that it 'might' provide a tiny silver lining.
The level of incompetence would almost be funny if they weren’t doing such an important job.
Weve had refusal to provide paperwork which we should of received on the day of the knock, a search which ignored half of the electronic devices in the house, a search where personal items were left on display for no reason at all other than to embarrass me, an officer who works on a SO team who appears to have no understanding of notification requirements and as a result made inaccurate statements about my OH previous offence whilst disclosing to my sister, had the first bail extension messed up so OH turns up at custody on the day he is supposed to only to be told it was extended three days earlier and there was no reason for him to be there and finally in there response to a formal complaint made a statement which indicates one of the officers has lied to us (this ones been escalated to Professional Standards).
I would say don’t be afraid to raise complaints I think they rely on us not wanting to rock the boat. Anyway looks like there will be another one going in next week this time from me as they have failed to respond to a freedom of information request I made.
Weve had refusal to provide paperwork which we should of received on the day of the knock, a search which ignored half of the electronic devices in the house, a search where personal items were left on display for no reason at all other than to embarrass me, an officer who works on a SO team who appears to have no understanding of notification requirements and as a result made inaccurate statements about my OH previous offence whilst disclosing to my sister, had the first bail extension messed up so OH turns up at custody on the day he is supposed to only to be told it was extended three days earlier and there was no reason for him to be there and finally in there response to a formal complaint made a statement which indicates one of the officers has lied to us (this ones been escalated to Professional Standards).
I would say don’t be afraid to raise complaints I think they rely on us not wanting to rock the boat. Anyway looks like there will be another one going in next week this time from me as they have failed to respond to a freedom of information request I made.
It's mad isn't it. We received absolutely no paperwork about the things they took. Apparently they were meant to???? They took a lot of stuff belonging to my children & I, including a very expensive camera I can't afford to replace (photography is my hobby) and I worry that I actually have no proof they even have our things. They took my laptop, but only because they got it mixed up with his. They then refused to return it even after acknowledging that they'd taken the wrong thing. I'll admit I'm probably too scared to put in a complaint. The ex's case is 'marginal' (one small deleted file - truthfully or otherwise he claims it was unsolicited) and I guess I feel like the OIC will then be more hostile.