Custody Note for criminal defence firms

By Robert Cashman, Solicitor. Published 21 October 2026.

Criminal defence solicitor in England and Wales. General guidance on police station work. It isn't legal advice.

For partners, practice managers and IT teams who need consistent police station attendance notes across fee earners — structured for PACE and Code C work, reliable offline in the custody suite, and free during beta.

Custody Note is desktop software (Windows and Mac) for structured police station attendance notes: disclosure, consultation, interview, outcome, and LAA billing fields. Each fee earner installs it on their own machine. Notes export to PDF for your case-management workflow. It's free during beta. Sign in with your email to sync your notes across up to 5 computers. Notes are encrypted on your computer before upload. QuickFile invoicing integration is built in. Custody Note is free while it's in beta. Paid Pro features may come later; anyone using it during beta will get notice first. You can't buy Pro yet.

Firm pilot during beta

Try it with your team during beta — we'll help you set it up. Start with one or two fee earners, then roll out if the workflow fits your firm. Use the form below to book a 15-minute demo or ask about a pilot (no public email address — we reply via the address you leave in the form).

Security and data

Custody Note is designed for sensitive client data. Attendance records live in an AES-256-GCM encrypted local database on each device and the app works without internet in the custody suite. During the free beta, sign-in sync stores encrypted records plus an encrypted copy of the database key so your other machines (up to five computers per account) can read them — this is not a zero-knowledge design. Optional encrypted cloud backup in AWS London (eu-west-2) is planned for paid Pro after beta. For full detail see our Security and Privacy Policy. We can provide a security and data protection summary on request via the feedback form (firm demo / pilot).

IT deployment

For managed Windows roll-outs, deploy Custody Note for Windows from the Microsoft Store (UK listing, ID 9NFSRVT3T45V) with Intune or winget:

winget install --id 9NFSRVT3T45V --source msstore --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

Microsoft Store listing (UK)
IT deployment guide (Intune, Store policies, and fallbacks)
Can't use the Microsoft Store? Download the installer directly on the Download page when Store apps are blocked entirely. The direct installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn users — the Store build avoids that prompt.
Windows may show a SmartScreen warning ("Windows protected your PC") when you run the direct installer. You can avoid it by getting Custody Note from the Microsoft Store instead. If you do use the installer, click More info, then Run anyway.
Mac: notarised .dmg from Download (Apple Silicon and Intel).

Who's behind Custody Note

Custody Note is developed and published by Defence Legal Services Ltd. Robert David Cashman is director of the company (Companies House SIC 69102 — Solicitors). On this site he is credited as Robert Cashman, Solicitor — Criminal defence solicitor in England and Wales. See the About page for publisher details. Custody Note is built around PACE and Code C police station attendance practice; it is a professional note-taking tool, not a claim of SRA or LAA approval.

Book a demo or ask about a pilot

Choose Firm demo / pilot below. The same Turnstile and rate limits apply as on Help & feedback.