PUBLIC DEFENDERS, PD or NOT PD!
This is part III of IV
STRATEGIES
Ah, strategies. I believe it to be a known fact that your average public defender has a much greater caseload than your average private defense attorney. I think that’s true, isn’t it? Especially in this economy when the various governments are having to clamp down on hiring. **That** is a fact. The public defenders offices have been dealing with hiring issues for some time now. And guess what? The number of cases coming through the system hasn’t slowed down.
Now, I have heard that police and prosecutors are being more selective about what cases they actually file because of the shortage of attorneys on the prosecutor’s side as well handling the cases, but I haven’t seen that. By my observations, there are just as many cases being filed as ever.
So what does this have to do with strategy? Well, I don’t think the public defenders are working longer hours working for the Government than I or my private defense attorney colleagues are working for our families. What that means is that on average, I’m assuming the private defense attorneys are able to spend more time on each case than our public defender counterparts.
Another thought – do you think the public defender gets paid more if he or she takes your case to trial? Of course not. And on the private side, on the more complicated, serious cases, you’ll have to pay a trial fee. On many misdemeanors, the cost of trial is either waived or included in the original fee. That means that there is an incentive for the public defender to plead cases out rather than fight all the way through a trial. With a private attorney, spending more time per case, it’s a wash either way. I won’t pressure you in either direction. I do love to fight and win, but if that’s not right for you, we’ll get the best deal we can and move on with our lives.
A final note – As I’ve said many times, for the most part public defenders are dedicated, hard-working, ethical attorneys who have your best interests at heart and they won’t nudge you to take a plea just because it makes their life easier. But their caseload is very heavy and you can do the math.
