Am I eligible for a court appointed attorney? Do I want one?

In state court in Dallas County, if you are in jail and unable to make bail, you will often qualify for a court appointed lawyer. As explained above, however, the court appointed lawyer will sometimes be taken away if you are able to post the bond. In federal court, many people qualify for court appointed lawyers because the legal fees charged for federal court representation are normally significantly higher than state court representation. In order to qualify for court appointed counsel in federal court, you will have to submit a financial affidavit and have it reviewed by a magistrate judge. The magistrate judge will determine if you qualify for appointed counsel and may require you to pay some sum in order to defray the costs of the lawyer. Court appointed lawyers often have a bad reputation and, often times, this reputation is not deserved. Like in all other areas of life, there are good and bad court appointed lawyers. The attorneys at Broden & Mickelsen, LLP continue to take a small number of court appointed cases because they believe it is their duty to help those unable to afford quality legal representation. For example, courts have frequently asked attorneys with the firm to represent individuals on appeal who have been sentenced to death. Although our firm gives court appointed cases the same attention as retained cases, the sad fact is that this is the exception rather than the rule. In short, make your decision regarding a court appointed lawyer by the type of attention the lawyer gives your case, not simply by the fact that the lawyer is appointed by the court. Still, with all of this said, a 2007 study was reported in the New York Times discussing the difference between being represented by a public defender as opposed to being represented by a retained attorney in a criminal case. The study was conducted by two economists for Emory University. The study concluded that in serious cases ‘the average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost THREE YEARS longer than the average for clients of private attorneys. Moreover, when all cases were considered, the average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost FIVE YEARS longer than the average for clients of private attorneys. (Source: Emory Study)