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