QUESTION

What can we do if the court appointed defense attorney failed to present and evidence and I think, is ignoring our case?

Asked on Nov 05th, 2012 on Criminal Law - New York
More details to this question:
She withheld evidence provided to her, failed to subpoena all witnesses available and never objected to prosecution using information that was deemed inadmissible to the case. She never prepared anyone for trial. We requested an appointment with her for the purpose of interviewing the witnesses, review the case and prepare for trial but were refused service. She repeated the remark, โ€œthis is not a difficult case" as an excuse for why she wasn't paying any attention to our concerns, ignoring documents provided to her and failing to subpoena additional witnesses. She did not enter any photo evidence, any unbiased witness' statements and didn't familiarize the jury with the client. There was only one person she chose to interview to testify for our defense. Then, just weeks prior to the trial this witness passed away. Hence, the court decided to throw out/disallow all of his prior statements from being used in the trial. She made no effort to re-strategize and out right refused to schedule a meeting with other witnesses and review the case with us. I supplied photos to her secretary, which she ignored. As the trial was underway, the prosecutor began to use information contained in the statements that were just thrown out and disallowed. Shockingly, she said nothing and never even objected. She was informed of many people she could have sent subpoena but ignored their importance. Instead, she put two people on the stand that she refused to interview at her office or prepare them properly. Then at trial, she allowed prosecutor to belittle one of them and with no relevance to the case. She didn't correct prosecutor when he implied they were bias and just suddenly showed up as witnesses. She knew this was not true but never said a thing.
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7 ANSWERS

Michael J. Breczinski
You can do two things. First you can appeal the case. Second you can file a grievance against the lawyer.
Answered on Nov 09th, 2012 at 4:41 AM

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John J. Carney
First of all, I am not a big fan of Legal Aid lawyers. I have seen them talk in court when told not to, dress poorly, not talk to their clients, not return calls, not interview witnesses, not research cases, and in general do a very poor defense to most cases. They are underpaid and overworked and are not very talented or even experienced in general. There are many who are very good lawyers who are properly prepared, but over the last 20 years the courts affirmative action plans have let people into law school with poor grades and low scores on the LSAT, and many of these lesser intelligent lawyers have ended up in the Legal Aid Society. You get what you pay for, and you paid noting. I do not know about your lawyer and she may have done a good job or not, I do not have sufficient facts to make a determination. there are only 10 good criminal lawyers in any town, and none of them are public defenders. you can appeal on ineffective assistance of counsel, but that is very difficult. All you can do is to appeal the case, and that too will be handled by a Legal Aid lawyer unless you have $20,000. I spend 100 hours on the average trial and charge at least at least $8,000-$10,000. My my normal rate of $300 per hour it would be $30,000. That is why poor people use public defenders to go to trial.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 8:19 PM

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Criminal Defense Attorney serving Alhambra, CA at Francis John Cowhig
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There are many factors that would need to be considered and evaluated. First of all, what were the charges and was the defendant convicted? If the defendant was convicted, (s)he may have a viable appeal based on ineffective assistance of counsel. I strongly suggest that you contact an experienced criminal defense attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding the defendant's case/situation. He/she would then be in a better position to analyze their case and advise you of their options.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 7:32 PM

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Open up your wallet and hire a private attorney. It doesn't take a genius to figure out, you get what you pay for.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 7:29 PM

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Bankruptcy Attorney serving Federal Way, WA at Freeborn Law Offices P.S.
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You don't say what the case was about. In any event, I never like to second guess the strategy of another attorney. To determine if there was something inappropriate would require reviewing all the transcripts. As far as the witness dying before trial; was the death foreseeable or an unfortunate accident. If it was not foreseeable, then it really is not the fault of your attorney unfortunate, but not a wrong doing. If you think there was a problem, then you may want to hire an attorney who specializes in appeals.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 7:29 PM

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Criminal Defense Attorney serving Deltona, FL at R. Jason de Groot, P.A.
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Check with attorneys in your area who do appeals and find out if there are appealable issues. Hire an appellate attorney to appeal the conviction if there was one. That is about all you can do beside relying on the appellate division of the pd's office, which is outstanding.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 7:06 PM

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Personal Injury Attorney serving New York, NY at Rothstein Law PLLC
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Assuming there was a conviction, you will need to appeal on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds if the errors are apparent on the record. If they are not you need to make a 440 motion.
Answered on Nov 07th, 2012 at 7:05 PM

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