The vast majority of criminal defendants in Massachusetts qualify for a court-appointed lawyer. The lawyer’s services are either completely free or the defendant must contribute a small amount towards his legal representation, no more than a few hundred dollars.
Despite getting a free (or nearly free) court-appointed lawyer, some defendants hire a private attorney to represent them.
Is this a wise decision? It’s impossible to say. Every lawyer’s competence—whether he’s court-appointed or private—must be assessed on an individual basis.
However, I do think some general observations can be made regarding private criminal defense attorneys.
Expense
The first, and most obvious, observation is that private lawyers are expensive. I practice law in western Massachusetts where legal billing is probably the lowest in the state. Nevertheless, the average private attorney in my area costs $2,000 to $10,000. And that’s for a run-of-the-mill criminal case. If your case involves complex facts or uncommon legal issues, you can expect to pay even more.
Reliability
Private attorneys go wherever the money takes them. Consequently, they often have multiple hearings on the same day in different courts. All courts start at 9am and there is a good distance between each courthouse. This means that defendants who hire private lawyers often spend a lot of them anxiously waiting for them to appear for hearings. It’s not uncommon to see a defendant wait from 8:30am (when the courthouse opens) until 12pm or later before the lawyer shows up—often to simply ask for a new court date.
This happens far less with court-appointed lawyers. Your average public defender goes to just one or two courts. So he has few, if any, scheduling conflicts.
Communication
Private lawyers are usually excellent about communication at the beginning of the lawyer-client relationship. This is a honeymoon phase between the lawyer and the client. The lawyer is trying to obtain (or has already gotten) a hefty payment from the client. So every text, phone call, and email is answered promptly and with ample attention.
In many cases, however, the good communication between the parties begins to wane as the case drags on. In fact, if the lawyer is paid with a lump sum or if he has exhausted his client’s retainer, the lawyer may start to view the client and the client’s case as a burdensome waste of time.
Competence
As I said, the assessment of a lawyer’s competence must be done on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a couple generalizations can be made.
First, there are some criminal defense attorneys who handle OUI cases exclusively. Such attorneys are often more skilled at OUI cases than your average court-appointed lawyer who handles any and all types of criminal cases.
Second, court-appointed lawyers are often better at handling the administrative aspects of your case. Again, most court-appointed lawyers go to just one or two courthouses on a regular (sometimes daily) basis. These lawyers know the clerks, the probation officers, the ADA’s, the court officers, the victim-witness advocates, and anyone else who works in the courthouse. So it’s usually easy for these lawyers to reschedule hearings, coordinate plea agreements, and generally represent clients in an efficient way.
That cannot be said for private defense attorneys who spend most days speeding from court to court interacting with dozens (possibly hundreds) of different court officials.
Law Office of Justin R. McCarthy 