Advantages And Disadvantages Of Public Defender

The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution gives indigent individuals that are charged with a felony the right to counsel. Indigents are defendants that can not afford to pay for a private attorney so the court provides them with one that the government pays for. There are three different ways that an indigent defendant in the United States can receive their court-appointed attorney. The judge could appoint a private practice attorney to represent someone and this is called assigned counsel and happens on a case-by case basis when the judge feels that it is best for the defendant. There are contract systems that provide representation to indigent defendants. Contract systems are attorneys that are hired for a certain amount of money that

The main advantage of a public defender is that their services are free so a defendant is sure to have representation. Public defenders have lots of experience and knowledge working in the same court's day after day so they will build a professional relationship with the other people that work in the courts everyday and can work out the best possible deal for their defendant.(Minick Law, 2014) The public defender's office has access to many legal aides that could help in a persons case. Public defenders are usually able to provide early representation and can be with their defendants as early as the initial appearance (Neubaur & Fradella, 2014) which can make the defendants feel more comfortable and know they have someone on their side as their case goes through the criminal justice process. There are also disadvantages of using a public defender because of the overwhelming amount of cases that the public defender's office has they may not be able to devote as much time as needed to each and

(Minick, 2014) The large caseloads means that there will not be as much face to face time that you would receive if a person was able to hire a private attorney and possible the public defender would not have as much fight in them to win your case as a self pay lawyer might. There are also advantage and disadvantage of having a private practice attorneys appointed as Assigned Counsel. Many critics of the Assigned Counsel say that these attorneys are the least-qualified attorneys that represent these defendants although they might be great attorneys in other area criminal case are not what they specialize in. The Assigned Counsel do get paid but at a much lower rate than what they charge in their private practice so they might want to hurt and get the case over with so that they could go back to their other case where they make more money.(Neubaur & Fradella, 2014) On the plus side if you get a attorney as a Assigned Counsel you could get more face to face time than you would with a public defender and their caseload would not be as high as a public defender. No matter what type of representation an indigent receives the government must pay and the person will have an attorney present with them to help guide them through