If you are charged with a drug related offence the right time to seek legal advice is as soon as possible from the moment you are notified that you have been charged.

A lawyer can help you in many ways especially in more serious drug offences and courts will often require that you seek legal advice before your matter proceeds beyond the initial stages.

Lawyers have been trained to help you understand your legal rights. Lawyers can represent you and speak on your behalf to police prosecutors and to the court at all stages of a drug offence.

They can analyse the evidence and consider what defences are available. A lawyer can make sure the evidence the police seek to rely on has been properly obtained. A lawyer may be able to challenge the admissibility of the evidence the prosecution seeks to rely on.

In particular your lawyer can:

• request all of the police evidence against you;
• analyse the evidence and provide you with advice on how best to proceed at each step;
• where appropriate negotiate the possibility of a diversion away from the criminal court to a less-serious drug rehabilitation program;
• discuss possible legal defences with you if you wish to plead not guilty;
• take your instructions about being unfairly treated by police or others and present that evidence to the court on your behalf;
• negotiate charges with police and prosecutors with a view to settling your case on less serious charges. For example they may persuade the prosecution to drop a charge of trafficking in return for a plea of guilty to possessing the drug;
• prepare a plea and present it to the court on your behalf; and
• provide you with advice about the possibility and chances of an appeal in the event that you are found guilty of an offence.