Criminal Law

Lorraine Smith was the defence counsel for Mr Trevor Miranda, an Aucklander who was duped into smuggling 1.5kg of Methamphetamine in hidden compartments of his bag in November 2013.

Lorraine Smith and Michele Wilkinson-Smith successfully defended double murder accused Chris Kahui in 2008. Was the result good luck or the start of a winning formula?

All my clients are important to me. It doesn’t matter whether you are on legal aid or if you are paying me privately. My job is to act professionally and do the very best job I can for you.

If the Police want to speak to you about an offence or if you have been charged with any of the offences listed below please call me and I will tell you what you should do.

I am available day or night to take your call and to deal with the stressful situation in which you have found yourself.

A barrister is a lawyer who appears for clients in Court but does not have a Trust Account. A trust account is where your money goes until the case has been finalised. You cannot pay fees directly to a barrister who must have an instructing solicitor.

An instructing solicitor is a barrister and solicitor who will refer you to a barrister and will tell you the barrister’s fee. He is responsible to the barrister for the fee and you will pay the fee into the instructing solicitor’s trust account.

You will be given a Law Society Trust Account receipt for that money.

A barrister & solicitor is a lawyer who also appears in Court but holds a trust account. You are able to pay your fees directly to the Barrister and Solicitor who will give you a receipt for your money.

If you are unable to pay privately for your legal representation you may be eligible for criminal legal aid. It depends on what assets you have and how much money you have left over when your weekly expenses are paid. You cannot choose your own lawyer for criminal offending which carries a term of under 10 years. With more serious offences, you are entitled to put on the legal aid form your lawyer of choice.

A Michele Hewitson Interview for New Zealand Herald.

You see her on the television, or in the papers: a small blonde woman in the centre of media scrums. I’ve never been able to quite place her in the company of those swaggering, high-profile lawyers. I had an odd image in my mind: of her holding her client Chris Kahui’s hand. She certainly put her arm around him, she says, in the midst of a media scrum and that he was terrified and utterly overwhelmed.