Rixey
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- Apr 20, 2016
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In DC it's a bit different in that in addition to the PDs office there are criminal defense attorneys who essentially sign-up on any given day and are assigned clients who are arraigned that particular day who do not have an attorney already. The courts simply go down the list as each case comes up and whenever they get to the end of the list they start over again. The accused will provide financial info and it is determined what percentage (if any) they must pay toward the attorneys fees with the rest paid by DC (unless its a pro bono situation). If an attorney is already representing someone in an ongoing case then they automatically get assigned to represent them in any new cases.The state of Georgia does the same thing. My brother is a private attorney there (and doesn’t even currently work in criminal law — although he used to work for the US Attorney General) and he’s had to serve as a public defender in the past. If the court has more cases than the current public defender’s office can handle, all members of the Georgia Bar are subject to being assigned to handle the case. The court essentially goes down the list and assigns them on a rotation.
There are instances where a particularly difficult case (certain murders, a large number of co-defendants, etc) will get assigned to a very inexperienced attorney and the court may request a more experienced attorney take over or act as co-counsel. Not sure how official those requests are, just that they do happen.