Anyone have any reccomendations?
Defendant is charged with possession of 7.5 grams of crystal meth.
Defendant is gay, HIV+ and believes he has been targeted by members of Chicago PD due to his sexual orientation.
Defendant is on disability and has no other source of income. Defendant has little to no savings
Obviously the public defender is one choice.
Can anyone name any resources defendant should call on aside from the public defender’s office?
Disclaimer: This isn’t me. This isn’t a family member. I’m not seeking legal advice, just possible references to legal representation that I can inform defendant of.
Public Defender checking in… What the PD’s office is good at is criminal defense work. It’s all we do. I can spot a technicality that can get you sprung from 5 miles away. Private attorneys who get paid three times what I do call me and ask for advice on how to handle their cases. I practice in front of the same 3 judges all the time, and I know which buttons to push. I know all of the cops, I know which ones can be trusted and which ones are lying sacks of s**t. I also know which ones the judges trust. And my efforts on your case won’t depend on how far you’re willing to open your wallet.
What we're not good at- hand-holding. If I call you everytime I think about your case, I'll have a lot less time to think about your case. Just because you don't hear from me every 10 minutes doesn't mean I'm not working on it.
I'd be willing to bet that he'd be better off with the PD than with 80% of the private bar.
Private civil attorney checking in. If you’re concerned about going with the PDs office, don’t be. Yes, some PDs suck. Of course, some private attorneys suck, too. But some private attorneys are brilliant. Of course, some PDs are brilliant, too.
I don’t have the study, and haven’t found it on the net, but when I was in law school, one of my criminal law professors taught us that PDs are generally comparable to private attorneys (or, put another way, private attorneys are generally comparable to PDs), but that you are more likely to get a good PD than to get a good private attorney. So take that for what it’s worth.
But if your question is what resources (other than the Public Defender) are available to a low-income client who wants competent legal representation for little or no money: he can try contacting his local Lambda Legal or bar association. From your description, his case sounds pretty run-of-the-mill (an allegation that the Chicago PD targeted a minority is hardly earth-shattering, and I doubt that he has much evidence to back up his suspicion – such is life), so Lambda Legal may not be interested, and I’m not sure what the Chicago Bar can do, but those are the two resources I would consider.