If you are accused of a crime and your liberty is somehow threatened (for example, with potential jail time), you’re entitled under the United States constitution to be represented by an attorney.
Get Legal Help Early
You ought to use a criminal defense lawyer to represent you straight away along the way, ideally at arraignment. A criminal defense attorney can:
- Challenge probable cause for arrest
- Argue in favor of being released on your own recognizance or on very low bail
- Negotiate plea bargains with prosecutors
- Discuss the pros and cons of going to trial
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pleading guilty
Getting a Public Defender Appointed
If you cannot afford to engage a legal professional in the private legal community, the legal court can contract a government-paid lawyer known as a “public defender” to fully handle your case.
In order to use a public defender, you will need to convince the judge that you can’t pay for to hire a legal professional all on your own. The judge may ask you to fill in a form describing your savings, assets, revenue and credit card debts. You can even need to provide the court with documentation such as paystubs to prove your income level.
Standards for the amount of money you can make and still get a public defender can vary greatly between states, and sometimes from one court to another.
In rural areas and in courts with meager resources, there might not be public defenders on staff with the court to represent you. In that case, the court will usually appoint a private attorney at public expense, or assign a private attorney from a volunteer attorney list to represent you.
In some courts, judges permit what’s called “partial indigency” representation: you have the help of a public defender, but are required to reimburse the court a part of the price of representation after the trial.
If you give false information to the court in an effort to get a public defender appointed, you could be charged with the crime of falsifying information.
If the court determines you make too much money to qualify for a public defender, you’ll want to immediately start looking to get a private attorney to defend you.
Disadvantages of a Public Defender
One downside of being represented by a public defender is the fact that these government-paid legal professionals often have a big overstock of cases, and cannot give a lot of time to one case. Subsequently, you could have little or no access to your lawyer except during actual court hearings.
Public defenders almost always lack office equipment and adequate research access, and can’t afford to engage investigators to adequately flesh out your case.
Public defenders tend to be young and inexperienced, and tend to be “cutting their teeth” on high-volume misdemeanor cases including DWIs.
A public defender also won’t be ready to advise you regarding related civil law or administrative matters (for example license revocation hearings in a DWI case). You will need to hire another attorney that can assist you with these concerns.
Advantages of a Public Defender
Public defenders work with the same judges and prosecutors day in and day out, and get to know their personal quirks, peeves and tolerances. In addition they see the same cops testifying, and know who’s likely to be a bad (and good) witness.
Public defenders usually are employed in “niched” aspects of legal specialty, such as DWI or domestic violence defense. So they tend to be up-to-date on new law and legal theories within their division of specialty.
A public defender is likely to be very efficient at comprehending your case and presenting a satisfactory plea bargain deal towards the prosecutor and judge. As a result, you may well be done with the criminal process and also on with the remainder of your life earlier than had you been represented by a private attorney.
Second Guessing Your Public Defender
Once you’ve been appointed a public defender, it has been very hard, if not impossible, to get your attorney replaced with another public defender.
If you are having doubts about advice your public defender offers you, make an appointment for a “second opinion” consultation with a private criminal defense attorney. Most lawyers are prepared to consult for a small fee, and you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing your public defender is on track.
For help with a DUI Savannah GA, find a criminal lawyer Savannah.