We are a free, confidential, LawWorks service offering advice and assistance to victims of miscarriages of justice.
The Innocence Project was founded at Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld in New York in 1992. There are now a growing number of Innocence Projects in the USA, UK and the rest of the world.
The City Law School is proud to be part of only four Innocence Projects operating in the UK today and 72 operating across the world.
The City Law School Innocence Project has three primary aims:
- To review/investigate potential miscarriages of criminal justice.
- To educate students about wrongful convictions, providing them with practical legal skills.
- To conduct research together with the Criminal Justice and Human Rights Centre addressing the multiple challenges facing criminal justice both nationally and internationally.
As part of The City Law School Innocence project, students will support clients in drafting applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) under the supervision of qualified criminal lawyers.
In doing so, students are provided with a learning experience that is difficult to replicate in a classroom setting. Through their work on cases they will gain practical insight, beyond the textbook, into the workings of the criminal justice system.
What we do and what areas of law do we cover
We are a University Innocence Project based at The City Law School, City University which is part of the University of London.
At The City Law School Innocence Project students, staff and external lawyers volunteer to provide advice and assistance to clients on a variety of legal issues.
The Project is run by Tejal-Roma Williams, an experienced criminal lawyer with over 12 years of experience both defending and prosecuting criminal cases.
We assist victims of miscarriages of justice to draft their application to the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC).
The CCRC can only review applications where there is new evidence or legal argument. Where this is the case the CCRC can use their legal powers under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to obtain information from public bodies such as the police, Crown Prosecution Services, social services, local councils etc. (Our powers and practices - Criminal Cases Review Commission (ccrc.gov.uk)).
Do I have to pay to use your service?
Our service is free to victims of miscarriages of justice.
How do we deal with your personal information?
When we receive your case through one of our referral partners, we will need to collect some personal information from you to decide whether we can help and to assess whether there is any conflict of interest. We collect, process and use your personal information in compliance with data protection laws, if you provide your consent to give us this information.
Please note that if you do not provide us with certain personal information, we will not be able to carry out essential checks which could mean that we cannot help you.
Please read the privacy notice for details of how we will deal with your information.
What happens if we cannot take on your case?
There may be circumstances in which we cannot advise you. These include:
- If we are not able to establish new evidence of legal argument
- Where there is a conflict of interest
- If your claim is not one of entire innocence
- If you are not currently incarcerated - If another Innocence Project is involved in your case
- If we do not have sufficient student and supervisory support - If you are a co-defendant of an existing City Law School Innocence project client
- If we are unable to access all of the relevant casefiles/documents
If one of the above applies to your case, we will usually try to inform you of this, but this may not be possible due to the number of enquiries that we receive.
What happens if we accept a referral from one of our partner organisations?
After receiving the case files, we will undertake an initial review which will involve:
- Assessing whether there are any significant documents missing and if it is possible to retrieve them. It may be necessary to index the case file
- Constructing a case summary which will highlight any areas of dispute
- Considering any previous arguments made through appeals or CCRC applications
- Examining any arguments that have been raised.
We will write to you to ensure that you are updated through each stage of your case.
Please note that we only accept referrals through partner organisations, and do not have capacity to reply to clients who approach us directly in our first year of operation (we open in October 2024). From October 2025 we will update our website with the new information.
What happens if my case is accepted through one of the referral partners?
If we accept your case through one of our referral partners, you will receive a letter of confirmation explaining our service and asking you to agree to our client care information which explains our service.
Please note that our assistants and student caseworkers are trained but they are not yet professionally qualified. They will be working under the close supervision of qualified lawyers.
Our lawyers are either City Law School staff or volunteer lawyers from practice. All volunteers are covered by insurance and provide advice and assistance on behalf of The City Law School Innocence Project.
Are we a Legal Practice?
We are not regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales and do not hold ourselves out to be a solicitor’s practice. We are however, a member of LawWorks and are committed to the Pro Bono Protocol.
The director of this service is a qualified criminal solicitor with over 12 years’ experience in defending and prosecuting all manner of offences before the Crown Court. Our director is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and has oversight of all of our cases.
Our volunteer lawyers are all qualified, experiences lawyers, committed to providing pro bono services to give back to the community.
Our law students are trained by the Director of the service and can join as assistants from the 2nd year of their undergraduate degree, rising to Student Caseworker in their final year.
Our post graduate students (those studying to be barristers and solicitors) volunteer as Student Caseworkers.
Who is responsible for your case if it is accepted?
Once accepted through a referral partner, your case will be allocated to a team of student caseworkers. This team will work on your case under supervision from a qualified lawyer.
Sally Gill
Sally Gill is founder and Director of the award-winning City Community Legal Advice Centre and the LawIRL concept, and is working alongside Tejal-Roma Williams on the setup of the new City Law School Innocence Project.
Sally is an experienced principal lecturer, supervising solicitor and law clinic director, leading on clinical legal education and law employability projects. She is a past Wig and Pen award winner (City and Westminster Law Society) for pro bono work.
Tejal Roma-Williams
Tejal Roma-Williams is a Supervising Lawyer at the award-winning City Community Legal Advice Centre at The City Law School, and Co-Director of the City Law School Innocence Project, assisting victims of miscarriages of justice.
Tejal-Roma is an experienced criminal litigator having worked as a Higher Courts Advocate and Duty Solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors and as a Senior Crown Prosecutor in the Crown Court and Proceeds of Crime, Serious Economic Organised Crime International Division (CPS SEOCID) at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Management Team
Dr Cassandra Wiener
Dr Cassandra Wiener is an Academic in Law at The City Law School. She is passionate about domestic abuse law reform and regularly acts as advisor to the Home Office and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner's office, among others. She played a key role in the drafting of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, successfully campaigning for a clause enhancing the criminal law protection of survivors of coercive control.
She is regularly consulted by governments and activists around the world who are considering following the UK's lead and criminalising coercive control, most recently appearing before the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control in New South Wales, Australia.
Dr Gemma Birkett
Dr Gemma Birkett is a senior Lecturer in Criminology at The City Law School.
She has extensive experience of working on criminal justice consultations and legislation, speech-writing and briefing on political issues.
Gemma continues to undertake research and consultancy work for several criminal justice charities.
Professor Eugene McLaughlin
Professor Eugene McLaughlin is Professor of Criminology at City, University of London.
His current research concentrates on: the policing challenges of multi-pluralist, risk societies; the news-media, crime and criminal justice policy, the politics of law and order and new developments in criminological theory.