Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
What kind of defense can someone expect for free?	powderpuff	11/12/05
If someone is arrested for felonious assault, is a free public defender going to be enough? I was told that an appointed public defender will not spend more than a couple minutes with the accused, and only then, immediately before court appearances. The public defenders are, after all, swamped with representing all those arrested the day before and have too many cases to actually talk with the defendant and present an accurate defense for any of his appointed cases. What I was told is, arrested people have a right to a competent attorney, not a right to an attorney that will present the best defense....(or even any defense). From my observations in a court room last week, that appeared to be the situation. Ok, so it is my understanding that a competent attorney is all anyone has a right to. A competent attorney would be someone who has a license to practice law, I'm guessing that would be a minimum to qualify as a competent attorney? What about a right to a fair trial? How can anyone believe that an accused person will get a fair trial if his court appointed free public defender will never hear a description of the situation from the accused's point of view, and therefore, will never present the defendant's position to the judge/jury? I thought people had a right to a fair trial, was I wrong?
Answered By		Answered On
Bishop_Chuck		11/16/05
A public defender will be sure you rights as for as paperwork filed is legal. What you will not get is a private detective to do any investigation, law clerks to do legal reserch to find prior case law for you. Also the public defender will not take alot of time to find errors in evidence presented. They will listen to you, and then at times send another defender to the actual trial who may be reading your file while they wait for the clerk to call your case. Now some are good, once we had a case where I arrested the "bad guy" in the house they broke into. The public defender made me look at the biggest back woods redneck you could ever see. So sometimes you may get one that will give it their best. But most, merely play lets make a deal and will try to get you to plea bargain. On telling your side, all they need to do is prove the other side is not right, often telling your side of he story will cause more harm. Not telling any side, merley making sure thier evidence is not presented or discredited is the best way to win normally.

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