In my own experience — and, btw, I am a private attorney — I originally would always tell potential clients that I was not going to badmouth public defenders. I pointed out to them that there are good public defenders and bad ones, which, I said, is exactly the same when it comes to private attorneys. It is unfortunately not true that “you get what you pay for.” Perhaps a fee is a partial indicator: a fee that significantly undercuts quotes someone might have received from other attorneys is probably a red flag. But you can still get a “free” public defender who does a better job than a lot of private attorneys you could hire.

In fact, all other things being equal (which, sadly, they are not), I would expect public defenders to be better attorneys, on average, than private attorneys. Among other reasons, they get more experience and are more often “tried by fire” than private attorneys. Plus, they’re usually part of the largest defense firm in town, giving them access to even more experience.

Now, above, I said, “originally” I would not badmouth public defenders. In a sense, I still won’t. But in my part of the world, it has become even more difficult to obtain good representation from a public defender. This is not the fault of the public defenders who remain after budget cuts. It is because California has apparently decided that indigent criminal defense is not remotely as important as arresting and prosecuting people. (It’s never been as important: but now it’s not even close.) Staff levels — lawyers AND support staff such as investigators — are so low and client loads are so high that I doubt even the best of public defenders does as good a job as most of their clients need.

Last year, when the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office blamed the high acquittal rate on “not enough money,” rather than overcharging and overzealous prosecution with inadequate investigation, they were apparently heard. Sort of.

They didn’t get more money. But public defenders, who handle the majority of clients in this county, got less.