# Can U.S. lawyers be ordered by a judge to defend someone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-u-s-lawyers-be-ordered-by-a-judge-to-defend-someone/204896>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 1, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-u-s-lawyers-be-ordered-by-a-judge-to-defend-someone/204896 "2003-10-01T11:30:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Claudio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Claudio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claudio)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-u-s-lawyers-be-ordered-by-a-judge-to-defend-someone/204896/1 "2003-10-01T11:30:58Z")

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Here’s the situation:  
Successful law firm with a heavy case load is ordered by a judge to defend someone who obviously has no money.

Can a judge do this? Does it actually happen? How is the law firm compensated?

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-u-s-lawyers-be-ordered-by-a-judge-to-defend-someone/204896/2 "2003-10-01T13:23:49Z")

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I’m not a lawyer, so take this response with a grain of salt.

What jurisdiction are we talking about? Most places have public defenders, whose only job is to represent criminal defendants who can’t afford to hire a private attorney. These public defenders are paid by the government, but generally not paid very well.

In some jurisdictions, like Texas (or parts of Texas?), there are no full-time public defenders. The defendant is still entitled to a lawyer and so a judge just appoints a member of the bar to represent him. Whether the lawyer gets paid for these cases and how much varies from one jurisdiction to another.