Character References

It is often advisable to provide the sentencing magistrate with a character reference provided by a person of good repute. But a poorly written reference is worse that no reference at all.

References you may have for employment are useless in court, as it is clear that the referee (the person giving the reference) knows nothing about the offences you are pleading guilty to.

 A reference for court should be:

• on the referee’s official letterhead, if possible;
   
• typed;
   
• addressed to “The Presiding Magistrate [place] Local/Magistrates Court”
   

 The reference should include:

• the referee's title and position;
   
• that they know precisely the facts surrounding all the charges you are facing;
   
• the circumstances under which they know you, and the length of time that they have known you e.g. through work or socially.
   
• their opinion of your character before the offence;
   
• now that they know of the offence, whether or not it will affect their opinion of your character;
   
• the referee's opinion of how the likely sentence will affect you e.g. loss of a driving licence. But please note, no comment should be made about what sentence the referee considers the court should hand out to you;
   
• any information of your personal circumstances that the referee knows about that may help to explain to the magistrate why you committed the offence (e.g. marital breakdown, drug or alcohol abuse, illness, etc). The referee should definitely not suggest, however, that these mitigating circumstances somehow mean that you are not guilty of the offence;
   
• the referee should never use the reference as an opportunity to give their own views on the morality of certain laws, the lack of seriousness of the offence, or the part the police played in the matter;
   
• mention any community service you perform;
   
• a comment of the referee's surprise, if this is the case, that you committed the offences;
   
• the reference should be signed and dated.
   

The client undertakes that any references they provide to all-lawyers and their agent for production at court are genuine and acknowledges that the production of false references would be a contempt of court and a perversion of the course of justice that can be dealt with by a term of imprisonment.