Families of Prisoners Support Group
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Most of the alleged offenders that I encounter and work with cannot afford private attorneys, so they are appointed a public defender, a PD. I found this information written by a public defender, which will give us more insight in how to deal with them as defense attorneys.
I realize it is lengthy. Read what you want, but there are several good points in this article.
Again, I did not write this article-------
I'm a public defender. I'm glad sites like this exist as a support group for people dealing with incarceration issues, which I understand are stressful and difficult to navigate. I thought I'd give back to the community by letting y'all know, from the perspective of a public defender, what you guys can do to help get the best legal outcome for your loved one.
1) Be there for your loved one. Being arrested is stressful and overwhelming. If they're not out on bond, prisoners can't do much, and it's really helpful to have a present and supportive family member.
I think defendants also make better decisions about their cases when their focus is on their case and not on whether their family will stand by them if they take a plea/don't take a plea/etc.
2) Stop calling me. Unless you were a witness to the alleged crime or otherwise have personal knowledge of facts relevant to the alleged crime, there's probably no reason I ever need to speak to you. That may sound harsh, but it's really in your loved one's best interests.
At any given time, I have approximately 40 clients. If every one of those clients has a family member (and many of them have more than one!) who wants to speak to me just 20 minutes a week, that's 13.3 hours a week I'm on the phone with family members. That's 13.3 hours a week (1/3 of a full 40-hour work week!) that I'm not working on your loved ones' cases.
I'm not a monster, and if you're calling me because you want to know when your loved one's next court date is or because you need directions to the courthouse, I will try to return your call within a few days to let you know this information, but realize that literally every minute I'm on the phone with you is a minute I'm not spending working on someone's case, and that someone may be your loved one.
If you have ANY OTHER WAY of getting the information you want to call me about, please use that instead.
3) I'm a criminal defense lawyer, not a counselor, psychologist, personal assistant, or Google substitute. Please don't call me to ask me what the visiting hours are at the jail, to ask how you can put money on your loved one's commissary account, to tell me that your loved one doesn't like the food at the prison, or to ask why the money you sent hasn't been deposited to his account.
Again, because I'm not a monster, if I am at all able I will probably take your call and give you as much information as I can provided it's not the 10th time you've called this week asking a similar question outside the scope of my job responsibilities, but see above re: every minute I spend giving you commissary instructions is a minute I'm not working on your loved one's case.
Please also don't ask me for legal advice outside my fiend of expertise. I don't know, for example, how your loved one is supposed to file his taxes when he's behind bars--I didn't even take tax in law school, have never done my own taxes, have no earthly idea, and don't have 5 hours to spend finding out.
4) Please don't ask me details related to the facts of your loved one's case. When a client gives me permission, I generally do my best to keep family members generally informed about general scheduling issues, whether a plea offer has been extended, etc., but you and I don't have a confidential relationship and, if your loved one's case were to go to trial, literally everything I have ever said to you could end up being disclosed to the prosecution.
Please don't ask me to discuss the evidence with you or to tell you my defense strategy. I can't. It's a bad idea. It's a violation of client confidentiality, an example of really bad lawyering, and potentially harmful to your loved one. Also, if your loved one is trying to discuss any of that with you over a (recorded!!!) jail call, it's a good time to remind him to stop, too.
I know you want to know what's going on. But you're not the one who has been arrested for a crime, and you're going to have to trust your loved one to make his own decisions.
5) Don't ask me if you should hire a "real lawyer." It's pretty insulting, and the answer is that I honestly don't care. I get paid a flat salary. My income does not depend on the number of hours I work or the number of clients I have.
If you want to hire private counsel for your loved one's case, it doesn't affect me at all, and I wish you all the best. But I am, in fact, a real lawyer. I graduated from law school and spent a number of years in private practice (where those "real lawyers" you want to hire work) before voluntarily taking a 50% pay cut to become a public defender because I honestly care about the rights of criminal defendants, and I think that people who can't afford lawyers deserve high quality representation. Could I make more money in private practice? Sure. I'm not in it for the money. Are there bad public defenders? Sure. But there are bad private counsel, too.
In 2009 when the financial crisis hit, my office laid off a ton of lawyers because of budget cuts. With only a few exceptions, my office took this as an opportunity to get rid of the "dead weight" around the office. Where did this "dead weight" go? A few retired but most set up their own shops and are now serving as private counsel.
6) Don't expect miracles. In 99% of all cases, there are only two ways out: 1) plead guilty, or 2) go to trial. I'm happy to take any case to trial if a client wants to go. I've won a lot of cases at trial. I've also occasionally gotten cases dismissed without ever having to go to trial, either by threatening trial in a case where the evidence was very weak or by filing motions that have gotten key evidence thrown out. But this is an exceptional situation and not the norm. I do the very best I can for every one of my clients and am ALWAYS looking for ways to make cases go away entirely.
I have NEVER pushed anyone to plead guilty if they were telling me they didn't do it, and I have NEVER tried to get out of trying a case because I don't want to do the work.
But if your loved one is, in fact, guilty and there is overwhelming evidence of his guilt (and this is the case for a large percentage of my clients, though obviously not all of them), his options are pretty limited. "I don't like my plea deal; I think it's too much time" is not a defense at trial. And if your loved one is on video tape robbing a bank while holding a gun, I don't have a ton of leverage to demand that the prosecutor give him a better offer.
Hope this helps understand the limitations of a Public Defender.
rewdiazepam
I realize it is lengthy. Read what you want, but there are several good points in this article.
Again, I did not write this article-------
I'm a public defender. I'm glad sites like this exist as a support group for people dealing with incarceration issues, which I understand are stressful and difficult to navigate. I thought I'd give back to the community by letting y'all know, from the perspective of a public defender, what you guys can do to help get the best legal outcome for your loved one.
1) Be there for your loved one. Being arrested is stressful and overwhelming. If they're not out on bond, prisoners can't do much, and it's really helpful to have a present and supportive family member.
I think defendants also make better decisions about their cases when their focus is on their case and not on whether their family will stand by them if they take a plea/don't take a plea/etc.
2) Stop calling me. Unless you were a witness to the alleged crime or otherwise have personal knowledge of facts relevant to the alleged crime, there's probably no reason I ever need to speak to you. That may sound harsh, but it's really in your loved one's best interests.
At any given time, I have approximately 40 clients. If every one of those clients has a family member (and many of them have more than one!) who wants to speak to me just 20 minutes a week, that's 13.3 hours a week I'm on the phone with family members. That's 13.3 hours a week (1/3 of a full 40-hour work week!) that I'm not working on your loved ones' cases.
I'm not a monster, and if you're calling me because you want to know when your loved one's next court date is or because you need directions to the courthouse, I will try to return your call within a few days to let you know this information, but realize that literally every minute I'm on the phone with you is a minute I'm not spending working on someone's case, and that someone may be your loved one.
If you have ANY OTHER WAY of getting the information you want to call me about, please use that instead.
3) I'm a criminal defense lawyer, not a counselor, psychologist, personal assistant, or Google substitute. Please don't call me to ask me what the visiting hours are at the jail, to ask how you can put money on your loved one's commissary account, to tell me that your loved one doesn't like the food at the prison, or to ask why the money you sent hasn't been deposited to his account.
Again, because I'm not a monster, if I am at all able I will probably take your call and give you as much information as I can provided it's not the 10th time you've called this week asking a similar question outside the scope of my job responsibilities, but see above re: every minute I spend giving you commissary instructions is a minute I'm not working on your loved one's case.
Please also don't ask me for legal advice outside my fiend of expertise. I don't know, for example, how your loved one is supposed to file his taxes when he's behind bars--I didn't even take tax in law school, have never done my own taxes, have no earthly idea, and don't have 5 hours to spend finding out.
4) Please don't ask me details related to the facts of your loved one's case. When a client gives me permission, I generally do my best to keep family members generally informed about general scheduling issues, whether a plea offer has been extended, etc., but you and I don't have a confidential relationship and, if your loved one's case were to go to trial, literally everything I have ever said to you could end up being disclosed to the prosecution.
Please don't ask me to discuss the evidence with you or to tell you my defense strategy. I can't. It's a bad idea. It's a violation of client confidentiality, an example of really bad lawyering, and potentially harmful to your loved one. Also, if your loved one is trying to discuss any of that with you over a (recorded!!!) jail call, it's a good time to remind him to stop, too.
I know you want to know what's going on. But you're not the one who has been arrested for a crime, and you're going to have to trust your loved one to make his own decisions.
5) Don't ask me if you should hire a "real lawyer." It's pretty insulting, and the answer is that I honestly don't care. I get paid a flat salary. My income does not depend on the number of hours I work or the number of clients I have.
If you want to hire private counsel for your loved one's case, it doesn't affect me at all, and I wish you all the best. But I am, in fact, a real lawyer. I graduated from law school and spent a number of years in private practice (where those "real lawyers" you want to hire work) before voluntarily taking a 50% pay cut to become a public defender because I honestly care about the rights of criminal defendants, and I think that people who can't afford lawyers deserve high quality representation. Could I make more money in private practice? Sure. I'm not in it for the money. Are there bad public defenders? Sure. But there are bad private counsel, too.
In 2009 when the financial crisis hit, my office laid off a ton of lawyers because of budget cuts. With only a few exceptions, my office took this as an opportunity to get rid of the "dead weight" around the office. Where did this "dead weight" go? A few retired but most set up their own shops and are now serving as private counsel.
6) Don't expect miracles. In 99% of all cases, there are only two ways out: 1) plead guilty, or 2) go to trial. I'm happy to take any case to trial if a client wants to go. I've won a lot of cases at trial. I've also occasionally gotten cases dismissed without ever having to go to trial, either by threatening trial in a case where the evidence was very weak or by filing motions that have gotten key evidence thrown out. But this is an exceptional situation and not the norm. I do the very best I can for every one of my clients and am ALWAYS looking for ways to make cases go away entirely.
I have NEVER pushed anyone to plead guilty if they were telling me they didn't do it, and I have NEVER tried to get out of trying a case because I don't want to do the work.
But if your loved one is, in fact, guilty and there is overwhelming evidence of his guilt (and this is the case for a large percentage of my clients, though obviously not all of them), his options are pretty limited. "I don't like my plea deal; I think it's too much time" is not a defense at trial. And if your loved one is on video tape robbing a bank while holding a gun, I don't have a ton of leverage to demand that the prosecutor give him a better offer.
Hope this helps understand the limitations of a Public Defender.
rewdiazepam
Truth is, maybe they don't have enough time to dig in, but it's still their job to represent them. My fiance's PD, even stated the wrong name, not his when speaking to the judge, he had the wrong file, wrong information.
Once, when the judge asked him if he had been explained to everything thoroughly by his PD before he pled guilty, he said No your honor, haven't spoke to him, heard from him in any way, and I want a continuance until I get talked to by someone who will explain things to me. I am not pleading guilty, just because this man who even got my name wrong wants to be rid of me
The judge then asked the PD if he had went to see him at all. The PD gave some excuse of being too busy. So the judge " nicely" gave them FIVE whole minutes over to the side of the room to talk.
He also had a PD years ago, who was new to criminal law. My fiance was his first case. He knew nothing about the SO laws, or registry things that would definitely affect his life. He was absolutely NOT guilty, but the PD told him to take the plea bargain, not to fight it, that he would spend maybe 5 months in prison, and it would all be over. Crock of shit that was. He also told him if you take it to trial, the jury will be at least half women, and you can't win.
These are just a few examples of why PD's are a joke, and we don't care to hear how overworked they are. We as taxpayers are helping those paychecks they get, their flat rate salary. Do they forget that the lives they affect by doing a crappy job, will ruin innocent people, and gee, those people falsely accused and stupidly counseled by these people just collecting paychecks will lose their wages, maybe their homes and families?
It is the system that causes this. It is a problem when people can't afford reliable attorney's, especially it is the system's problem when they are falsely accused and cannot afford to get a quality attorney who MAY actually fight for them.
PD's have NO ROOM to sit and complain about us. We call them because the men in the jail's try to contact them, through the channels they are allowed in jail, and get no response. Or the PD's do send some sort of correspondence to them, promising to come, or call them, but it never happens. So we have to call them. WE are out here working, paying taxes, some of which goes to their wallets, so yes, we do have a right to contact them.
And yes, some are guilty, but some ARE NOT.. and their world is totally out of control, for nothing they did. These PD's are not human if they think like this man does.
And it is very disheartening when you see the PD and DA's out in the hallways laughing and joking together, like the are the best of friends. But we forget, they work for the same people. Hired by the same people. Are co worker's, and sometimes those PD's are bucking for a better job in the DA's office. Seen it.