Why you should avoid public defenders . . .

[Deb in IA]

Actual court transcript:


Defendant: Judge, I want you to appoint me another lawyer.

Judge: And why is that?

Defendant: Because the public defender isn't interested in my case.

Judge: (to public defender): Do you have any comments on your defendant's motion?

Public defender: I'm sorry, Your Honor. I wasn't listening.

 

[Dan Murphy]

 

[flaps]

That is more than sad, IMHO.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

unfortunately, when I handled legal malpractice cases, I saw much worse than that.

and most of it from lawyers people paid to represent them. (by the way, in a criminal matter, you'r emore likely to get a new trial on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel if the lawyer was a public defender. if you paid for your own lawyer and he messed up, you're probably stuck.)

a lot of cases involving missed deadlines -- the lawyer failed to bring suit and the statute of limitations expired.

fortunately, most of the time, when a lawyer malpractices, the problem can be fixed by money -- his insurance company pays the price.

I had one memorable case -- the plaintiff sued her doctor for malpractice -- she walked into the hospital under her own power and left in a wheelchair. to compound the problem, her lawyer blew the statute of limitations.

I worked for the lawyer's insurer. we paid a multi million dollar settlement -- which should have been paid by the doctor's insurer, since he was the one who put plaintiff in the wheelchair, but because of the lawyer' s simple error, we got stuck with the bill. I got a good view of med mal cases when I handled that one. glad I don't have to deal wiith that every day.