Victimized By The Court'S Appointed Counsel

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Victimized By the Court's Appointed Counsel

Amy Ashley

Axia College

Effective Persuasive Writing Com/120

Karen Lawler

November 19, 2006

Victimized By Counsel 2.

Victimized By Court's Appointed Counsel

When working with a court appointed lawyer you need to research and follow up on guidelines that carry with your charge. You have to learn how the court system works. Lawyers that are hired by the court to represent the low and middle-income people are lazy in doing their job. There are many reasons why court appointed lawyers don't do their best for their clients involving the court cases.

Pretrial court is usually within a week from the date that you committed the offense. Did you know that if you can't afford a lawyer, the court would appoint you one? It is the law that you have to be represented by a lawyer during the time of your trial unless you sign a waiver to not have a lawyer at all.

People are represented in court by two kinds of lawyers, court-appointed lawyers and public defenders, which mean "hired lawyers" (Green, 2001). People that have higher income can hire their own lawyers. The lower and middle-income people are mainly the ones who rely on court appointed lawyers. These people don't have the money to hire a lawyer. Court appointed lawyers are not working in your best interest for many reasons.

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Salary is one reason why court appointed lawyers don't go up and beyond their call of duty for their clients. Studies show on an average, people will be sentenced harder or longer if he/she is represented by a court-appointed lawyer rather than a public defender (Green, 2001). Court-appointed lawyers are paid by the state on a case-by-case basis. Court appointed counsel's paycheck varies by offense. The defense counsel will typically only be paid 112.00 to 326.00 for normal lower class cases. Felony punishment by more than twenty years in prison can give up to 1,196.00 for the court appointed lawyer (Green, 2001). Public defenders or "hired lawyers" are salaried state employees. If you hire a lawyer they usually charge about 55.00 an hour during court for their work and 75.00 an hour for out of court (Green, 2001). The figures show clearly the wide range of difference between the incomes of each type of lawyer. Court appointed lawyers will not work more then what their pay will allow them. Basically for a charge if you hire your own lawyer then you will get less time to spend in jail verses letting the court appoint you a lawyer.

Lawyers were all made to take court appointed cases in the past. The only way to get out of taking a case back then, being incapable of taking a case at that time or a

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conflict of interest. It was proven back in 1977, the legal profession was lazy and over paid (Clichй, 1977). Today, court can only appoint counsel who is on a list saying they are willing to accept court-appointed cases. Lawyers that are willing to take on these cases do not think clearly about what it honestly involves to do a fair job for their client. In most cases these trials are classed as easy and fast.

Lawyers don't have time to represent their clients like they should. Dealing with court appointed cases, it seems that 90% of clients either are caught red-handed or admit their guilt before he is appointed to represent the client (Gorilla, 2005). When cases like that happen, the lawyer does not have to spend lot of time on the case. Lawyers feel guilty for the cases that need quality time to prepare that aren't a cut and dry case (Gorilla, 2005). It is not right for a lawyer to feel it is ok to not give quality work for all cases based on 90% that the clients are guilty before hire counsel. What happens to the other 10%? The 10% of clients' left that were not caught red handed or admitted their guilt? They are the ones who get punished for a crime that they actually didn't commit or sentenced harsher cause they were not represented properly. These small percentages

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of cases are the ones that time are needed but the lawyer doesn't fulfill space to research properly. These lawyers only see their clients little as possible. During the pretrial the court appointed lawyer might not even be present. Many times you have to contact them by phone. The lawyer will call you back and set a time right before your

hearing to discuss more on your case. That is not enough time to go over a case when it is dealing with someone's freedom.

Researching your own case can be done in any ways. There are two questions to ask before researching guidelines. What is the class of the charge? What does sentencing carry for this crime? Knowing the guidelines for the charge is one great way to start. Peoples' past record plays a big role on your ending punishment. Once you know what the guidelines are then you can start researching the ins and outs. What have other people received when charged with this exact crime? The internet is one way to find out information. There are many places to find chat rooms, listing court documents, and web sites involving crimes. Talking to lawyers other than your own counsel. The first visit to a lawyer is usually free. They can tell you their opinion after knowing your past and daily routine and what lead up

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to you getting charged. The local library can help by searching background information and court routine. Talking to other people that may have been to court is another great way. You can go to your local courthouse and sit in when court hearings are going