It sounds wild but you could be prosecuted & convicted in England & Wales without a trained lawyer being involved. This was uncovered by the Office for Rail & Road when investigating prosecution of people for not having the right rail ticket www.transformjustice.org.uk/publication/...

"Every time I go into a prison, I say: why them, and not me?"...had not realised until he died what a strong campaigner for penal reform Pope Francis was

Confused about gov's strategy to reduce Crown Court backlog. They want to take lowest level cases out of Crown Ct to reduce delays in cases like rape. But new policing bill pushes shoplifting offences from mags court into the Crown Ct. Impact assessment says move will create >2000 new Crown Ct cases

New criminal court stats just published ...not looking great

I was particularly intrigued by a photo shot inside a courtroom where mafia boss Gaetano Fidanzati was being tried. He doesn't seem to be in a dock, nor hand-cuffed and no guards sitting next to him. Whereas someone accused of shoplifting in our mags' courts will nearly always be in a secure dock.