Getting a Public Defender

No one shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

It is indispensable to have a criminal defense lawyer if you were accused of a crime. You should be represented as early as possible to anticipate what to do from the arraignment to the promulgation of decision. This is done to challenge the probable cause of the arrest, to argue in favor of being released upon the giving of bail, to negotiate plea bargains, to discuss the pros and cons of going to trial and the disadvantages as well as the disadvantages of pleading guilty instead of going to trial.

If you can not afford to hire the services of a private attorney, you can seek the services of a public defender. A public defender is a governmental official who represents indigents accused of a crime. Our statute expands the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and contending that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in prison until an attorney was provided.

To convince the judge that you can not afford an attorney, you can provide documentation such as paystubs to prove your income level. The judge may ask you to fill out a form specifying your financial resources, income, assets and debts. Sometimes partial indigency representation is allowed by the court. Here you are expected to reimburse the court some of the cost of representation. If you gave false or inaccurate information in the course of getting a public defender, you can be charged with falsifying information.

The disadvantages of having a public defender are the following. First, they have loads of cases to attend to and they can not devote most of their time in your case. Consequently, you can only have little access to your lawyer. Second, they lack office equipment and sufficient research access. They cannot afford to hire investigators to adduce more evidence on your behalf. Third, most of them are young and inexperienced. Lastly, he may not be able to assist you with related civil law or administrative matters. There is still need to hire a separate lawyer to help you.

On the other hand, some of the advantages of having public defender are the following. They work with the same judges, prosecutors and police officers day in and day out. They get to be acquainted with their personal idiosyncrasies, irks and tolerances. Second, they are up to date on new law and jurisprudence. Third, they are efficient in sizing up your case and contemplating on an acceptable plea bargain deal. Thus, you may be done with the criminal procedure sooner than if you were represented by a private attorney. A public defender is hard to replace. If you have doubts about advice you can get a second opinion from a different lawyer. From then, you can be assured that your public defender is on the right track.