Why choose us?

Why choose Perrella Legal to represent you on your criminal charge?
  • We are criminal law specialists
  • We have over 40 years of combined criminal law experience
  • We know the courts, the prosecutors and the police system
  • We get results (look at our recent case studies)
  • We only charge fixed fees for all our services (no nasty surprises with our bills) except appeal work
  • We offer a free, no obligation face to face consultation about your criminal charge* (and yes, we can do Skype consultations for people in regional or remote areas)
  • We only advise a client to take a matter to trial where there is a genuinely reasonable prospect of success.
Our Director, Mr Perrella is an experienced former prosecutor with the inside knowledge about:
  • How and when to make a successful public interest submission. A “public interest submission” is a formal request for the prosecution to exercise their discretion to discontinue the prosecution of a charge without the need for a trial. A discontinuance of a charge without the need for a trial is the best outcome possible. There is a particular art to drafting these submissions. We take great pride in our very high success rate with public interest submissions.
  • How a prosecution case is pieced together and how to identify weaknesses or crucial deficiencies in the prosecution case well before the case gets to trial. This enables us to develop a strongly effective defence strategy at trial – especially in jury trials in the superior courts.
  • First-hand experience as a former prosecutor in preparing witnesses for trial, particularly civilian, police and expert witnesses and certain classes of vulnerable witnesses (for example in sexual assault cases). This knowledge gives us an advantage, which other defence lawyers don’t have, when cross examining such witnesses at trial.
  • How the prosecution policy applies to charging practices and whether a charge in a Prosecution Notice (the charge sheet) or Indictment (superior court charge sheet) is improper, defective or capable of being dismissed by a Magistrate or a Judge prior to any trial.
We specialise in criminal law

We truly specialise in what we know best – criminal law.  We do not take on cases in any other area of law (eg. family law, personal injuries, commercial law, wills and probate etc.). We are in court every day and we are constantly working on criminal cases which keeps us up to date with the latest developments in the criminal law.

  • We run well over 20 defended trials each year
  • One or more of our lawyers is in court each day

We are expert at assessing large and complex briefs of evidence and can quickly identify weaknesses in the prosecution case and what lines of expert evidence we may need to pursue.

We are very familiar with sentencing trends in the Court of Appeal and with the necessary information provided by our clients we are able to accurately advise on the likely disposition (i.e. sentence) in the event of a finding of guilt for any criminal offence.

Our lawyers have appeared as counsel in hundreds of criminal trials and sentencing hearings across all courts - the Magistrates Court, Children’s Court, District Court and Supreme Court.

Our lawyers regularly negotiate with prosecutors and police officers and we regularly appear in all courts. We have the advantage of knowing the idiosyncrasies of the Magistrates and Judges we appear before daily.

We offer a fixed fee for all our services

We don’t charge by the hour or in six minute increments. We focus on getting the best result for you not finding ways to expend unnecessary time on your matter so we can charge you more. Before you sign up as a client of Perrella Legal you will have a very accurate estimate as to how much it will cost to see your matter through to completion. Our fees are fixed and spelt out in plain English in our costs agreement.

We offer a free initial consultation on your criminal charge

At absolutely NO COST and NO OBLIGATION one of our criminal law specialist lawyers will cover all of the following in a comprehensive initial consultation about your criminal charge (fees apply for traffic offences):

  1. The maximum penalty, the minimum penalty (if applicable) and the mandatory penalty (if applicable) for the offence/s; and where applicable, the automatic consequences for you in the event of a conviction, for example, whether a conviction for the offence will result in you being disqualified from holding or obtaining a motor driver's license, being declared a drug trafficker or being registered as a reportable sex offender; or whether you may be liable to pay criminal injuries compensation or liable to deportation (these are just a few of the many potential automatic consequences following a conviction/sentence for certain offences). 
  2. Inform you of the elements of the offence/s. The elements are the check list of matters all of which the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt in order to prove the charge;
  3. Advise you of the likely outcome in the event of a finding of guilt (e.g. likely sentence following a plea of guilty as compared to the likely sentence if convicted after trial);
  4. Advise you of the availability of any reasonably arguable defence/s to the charge/s;
  5. Advise whether there is scope to negotiate the charge/s or if you are intending to plead guilty whether there is scope to negotiate the facts on which a plea of guilty will be based;
  6. Indicate the time it will likely take to see the charge to conclusion; and
  7. Provide you with an honest and accurate estimate of our fees to represent you.

Because we spend considerable time and effort preparing for the initial consultation (and during the consultation) we have limited initial consultations available each week. We strongly encourage you to book an initial consultation at the very earliest opportunity to allow for potential delays before seeing one of specialist criminal defence lawyers.

*free initial consultation only applies to an individual person (not a corporation) facing a criminal charge in any court in Western Australia where the person has not already obtained advice from another lawyer. The offer of a free consultation does not apply to a person who is suspected of committing a criminal offence but not charged, and does not apply to a person charged with a non-criminal offence, such as a traffic offence or a regulatory offence, and does not apply to a person who has been convicted of any offence and is seeking advice regarding an appeal against conviction and/or sentence, and does not apply to any restraining order matter.

Click here to send us an online enquiry, or call us on (08) 9225 6646

What our clients are saying about us