Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in California

You are wasting all of our time. If you are an indigent criminal defendant, you are entitled to a attorney appointed by the court. This website is not a mini law school where we teach you how to represent yourself over night.

Mr. Roach may have misunderstood your question. It sounds like you are appealing a civil judgment related to your criminal case, and not the criminal case itself. Civil litigants are rarely entitled to appointed counsel.

It's possible that the petition was denied because you didn't provide all the necessary information or evidence. If that's what happened, the order denying it probably says so. You may be able to try again. Offhand, I don't know if that's an option.

Even assuming the order is final, the denial of your petition does not mean you must hire a lawyer. It just means you have to pay the court's fees. An order granting your petition would have waived those fees, but it would not have relieved you of the cost of hiring a lawyer. So if you can't afford counsel, your best option is probably to pay the court fees and represent yourself. Remember, you would have needed to represent yourself even if the petition had been granted.

(I realize even the court's own fees may be prohibitive for you. But if the court won't give you a waiver, then you have to pay them.)

You might also be able to find a lawyer who would represent you pro bono, and perhaps even pay the court fees for you. But most lawyers do that only in cases which raise important legal issues and/or which would otherwise likely result in an injustice. Relatively few cases meet those criteria. I don't know if yours is one of them, but it might be.

Good luck.