Having your own lawyer is better than legal aid.
Having legal aid is better than having nobody/defending yourself. but you should verify whats said before you commit to any deals.
Legal aid isnt inherently bad, but the system definitely seeks to undermine the defense they can provide you by grossly under funding the legal aid system for the workload it has, that can result in situations where legal aid workers carry inhumanly large case loads and just arent able to give your case the time or attention it should receive.
If it is your only option then yes legal aid is worth it.
Yes it’s worth it. Even the worst, most overworked public defender has spent years of their life in school, deals with a system you’ve likely never interacted with on a daily basis, and usually has some level of altruism. The reason you hear about people who win by representing themselves is because it’s very rare for them to not get trampled by the system
The biggest reason that a public defenders struggle sometimes is because they have more limited time and resources compared to private defenders who can generally scale effort with the amount of money thrown at them. That is mainly an issue with society’s priorities, since we throw far more money at prosecutors.
I was privvy to info about prosecutors vs public defenders. It may not be true in every region, but it is at least in my town.
Prosecutors actually get less money to handle cases, but get to push off or decline to prosecute depending on severity and caseload.
Public defenders get more funding from many different levels of government, but even with that funding they are overworked with twice the staff.
I think prosecutors already have the case presented to them as well, and they are pressing charges. Defenders need to pick up where the police and prosecutors left off and either find a legal out or bargain with what the defendant has to get the best position.
Also, from what I have heard about pro se defendants is that it frustrates the court because the proceedings grind to a crawl to ensure the defendant understands enough of what is going on to not have them claim they were railroaded.
If you can afford a private defense attorney, you probably should. Their case load will be considerably smaller.
That said? Public Defenders tend to be some of the hardest working and most passionate people out there. You generally don’t get into that unless you believe in justice (even just being a corporate lawyer who rubber stamps paperwork tends to pay significantly more) and they obviously have a LOT of experience in whatever you just did. And they tend to have a solid rapport with most judges because they see them potentially multiple times a week.
So… how about you not be a dick to the people putting the work in?
Wasn’t being a dick even though my name implies it. I have been on a L and O binge for the past couple days so I asked.
And Dick Wolf is a dipshit who actively villifies public defenders and any form of defense attorney.
Regardless
Or is it pretty much the bottom of the barrel for defense and compensation?
THIS is being a dick. Do better.
If your options are a lawyer and self-representation, yeah. They’re worth it.
“A person who represents themselves in court has a fool for a lawyer.”
I thought the saying was “A person who represents themselves in court has a fool for a client.”
For some reason, I’ve heard it my whole life as “you’re a fool”…
Both are equally valid.
bunch of genital-related posts and now this? you got in trouble, dickle?
He pissed off dave from the superhero movie. Now he needs a lawyer but all he can find is the g-spot.
Jesus do you guys and gals read each person’s post history before commenting? Or am I just flavor of the week.?
Don’t need to check your post history if you keep spamming posts.
No we check everyone’s.
So that’s a yes on reading each person?
Sorry I ment no meaning yes.
No meaning yes meaning no, or no meaning yes?
either… or both
It’s the type of questions and rapid frequency of posts every single day that has everyone digging through your history.
That depends if you want to tickle my pickle which is whickle which you won’t find on any table.
At the bare minimum, with a bad lawyer, you have a chance to appeal on a mistrial. Representing yourself, you don’t even have that.
Worth what? You aren’t paying them anything (unless your state’s rules are really fucked up). They’re definitely better than you defending yourself.
Are they worth you putting your trust in them not to blow the case because they are fresh out of school.
Generally no you should never put your trust in any attorney, even the ones you pay. But if you don’t know what you’re doing and not willing to spend the time, then any attorney is better than making a fool of yourself.
Not really. It depends if you’re willing to understand the legal framework and process, and adequately research case law… and have some money and time. The more you learn the easier it is to predict what legal arguments or defenses the other side will make before they even make them.
Criminal cases are obviously different but most prosecutors are already understaffed, so if you don’t roll over for them and do the things an actual descent attorney would do, then a public defender isn’t automatically better. A public defender will almost always try to get you to to take the very first plea offer. Rarely do you even get one that actually fights for their clients, especially when there is an injustice.
But you must commit the time and it is exhausting mentally. I’d almost always rather pay for an attorney, but there have been times when the attorneys said no, and I knew the attorneys were wrong. In both instances I won major cases by myself and even had opposing counsel try to recruit me at their firm afterwards saying they’d pay for me to get a law degree.
