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Murder & Manslaughter Solicitors

Killing another person is the most serious crime you can be accused of and can result in years behind bars followed by a lifetime of stigma. If you or someone you know has been accused of murder or manslaughter, you may be feeling terrified, but do not try to go through the process alone – contact our specialist criminal defence solicitors for advice and support.

We are one of the oldest and most experienced criminal defence teams in the North West of England. With 200 years of experience standing by our clients in homicide cases, you can trust us to provide the help you need during this dark and difficult time.

Facing murder or manslaughter charges can be extremely worrying and stressful. The police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) can be intimidating and will be doing everything possible to link you to the crime so they can successfully prosecute you. So, it’s vital that you have someone on your side to protect your rights and provide care and support.

We can leap into action at short notice to come and help you, including:

Travelling to police stations across the country to represent you.
Advising you during criminal investigations.
Defending you in court.

Our murder and manslaughter defence team are ranked in the top 10 of criminal defence firms in the country based on client feedback at Review Solicitors. In many cases, we are able to get the charges against our client reduced or dropped altogether. We also have a strong track record of achieving ‘not guilty’ verdicts at court.

Get in touch with our manslaughter and murder solicitors

If you or someone you know needs fast, expert criminal law advice and defence at the police station, during investigation or at court, get in touch with our murder and manslaughter solicitors in in Liverpool, Runcorn or Warrington.

Call 03444 124348 | Ask us a Question

For urgent out of hours matters call FREEPHONE 0808 196 1790

We regularly travel across the country to assist people at the police station or at court. Our lawyers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our police station representation service is free of charge. It is your legal right to have representation at the police station.

We highly recommend that you do not answer the police’s questions about an alleged offence until we are by your side to advise you. Anything you say during a police interview could be used in a decision to charge you or as evidence in court.

This includes if you have been invited for a voluntary interview under caution – these interviews are not casual chats. Instead, ask to call Bell Lamb & Joynson as soon as possible.

How our manslaughter and murder solicitors can help you

Because murder and manslaughter are such serious offences, the police and prosecution need to gather a lot of evidence to be able to convict.

We make it our mission to challenge any evidence to cast doubt or explain your involvement. As solicitors, we are able to access more information than the suspect can and know exactly how to obtain the information we need to build you the strongest possible defence. We can make sure that you’re not walking into interview blind and ensure you are prepared for anything.

In many cases, we are able to bring the case to an end at the police station or during the criminal investigation stage, getting any potential charges dropped and no further action taken. Where cases do proceed to court, we can provide a fierce defence strategy and often achieve absolute acquittals (‘not guilty’ verdicts).

Our team includes experienced police station representatives and court advocates, so we can provide you with consistency and the highest quality of legal advice from start-to-finish.

Our expertise includes:

Murder defence
- Complete defences to murder, such as self-defence
- Partial defences to murder/voluntary manslaughter – loss of control and diminished responsibility
Attempted murder defence
Conspiracy to murder defence
Involuntary manslaughter defence
- Gross negligence manslaughter
- Unlawful and dangerous act manslaughter

Murder defence

Murder is when someone:

Causes the death of another person
Was of ‘sound mind and discretion’ at the time of the crime
Intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) (really serious harm)

There are many defences to murder which can be broken down into two categories:

Complete defences to murder – where the requirements for murder are not made out, for example, in cases of self-defence
Partial defences – where all the hallmarks of murder are present but if successful, reduce the charges from murder to voluntary manslaughter

Partial defences to murder (voluntary manslaughter)

There are two partial defences to murder:

Loss of control – where the suspect:
- Lost their control
- As a result of a ‘qualifying trigger’ (such as a fear of serious violence)
- Where someone just like the suspect would also react in the same or similar way
Diminished responsibility – where the suspect was:
- Suffering from an ‘abnormality of mental functioning’
- As a result of a recognised medical condition
- Which substantially impaired their ability to understand their conduct, form rational judgment or exercise self-control
- And provides an explanation for the killing

It can also be a defence where the suspect and victim made a suicide pact. As with the defences above, in these cases, the suspect will be guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.

Proving these defences can be complicated, often relying on a huge deal of evidence, including medical evidence. We can provide advice about arguing a partial defence to murder and build solid defence strategies for our clients.

Attempted murder

Attempted murder can actually be more difficult to prove than murder because the prosecution cannot claim that you intended to cause GBH – they must prove intent to kill.

So, we are often able to mount strong defences to allegations of attempted murder to help our client avoid conviction or to reduce the charges.

Conspiracy to murder

A conspiracy to murder is when two or more people make an agreement to kill someone else or cause GBH. For example, hiring a hitman to kill someone can be a conspiracy to murder even if you’re not involved in the actual killing.

It’s also not a requirement that the murder actually took place. For example, if two people decide to hire a hitman, but don’t go through with it, this can still be a conspiracy.

These types of cases are extremely complicated, so don’t leave things to chance. We have experience defending people involved in conspiracy to murder cases, representing you at every stage of the process.

Manslaughter defence

Manslaughter is when a someone causes the death of another person, but they have an excuse. For example, because they did not intend to cause the death.

There are two types of manslaughter:

Voluntary manslaughter – these are the partial defences to murder of loss of control and diminished responsibility
Involuntary manslaughter – where the suspect did not mean to kill the victim

Involuntary manslaughter

There are two types of involuntary manslaughter:

Gross negligence manslaughter – where the suspect:
- Owed the victim a duty of care (for example, a doctor owes a duty of care to their patient not to cause them harm)
- Breached their duty (for example, a doctor who provides poor quality care may be in breach of duty)
- The breach of duty caused the victim’s death (for example, a patient dies as a result of their doctor’s poor quality care).
Unlawful act manslaughter – where the suspect:
- Committed a dangerous act (for example, committing arson).
- Where there was a risk of someone being harmed (for example, setting fire to someone’s house is likely to put them in danger).
- Where the victim died as a result of the unlawful and dangerous act.
- And the suspect had the intention to commit the unlawful and dangerous act.

We represent people facing charges for involuntary manslaughter, taking a strategic approach to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence and achieve the best possible outcome.

Get in touch with our murder and manslaughter solicitors

Call 03444 124348 | Ask us a Question

For urgent out of hours matters call FREEPHONE 0808 196 1790

We regularly travel across the country to assist people at the police station or at court. Our lawyers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.