Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: violation of fiduciary duty in a partnership

no.

Re: violation of fiduciary duty in a partnership

Most crimes are not violations of fiduciary duty, and most violations of fiduciary are not crimes. There is some overlap.

Whether the particular act or acts that you have in mind are criminal as well as being breaches of a fiduciary duty of a partner to the other partner(s) or to the partnership would depend upon additional facts not mentioned in your brief question.

The role of the public defender is to represent persons who have been charged with a crime and cannot afford to pay for legal representation. The public defender's office does not represent victims of crime, nor does it represent victims of violations of fiduciary duty or persons accused of breaching a fiduciary duty unless also charged with a criminal offense.

Re: violation of fiduciary duty in a partnership

A court action alleging breach of fiduciary duty is almost surely a civil suit. If the plaintiff is anyone but the government, then the case is civil and a public defender would not be available. The government can be a plaintiff in a civil suit, but it should be relatively easy to tell from the government's pleadings whether the case is civil or criminal.

Breaching a fiduciary duty is not a crime. But some crimes, if committed against a victim to whom the criminal owes a fiduciary duty, would breach that duty. The defendant could then be sued civilly by the victim and prosecuted criminally by the government. If the defendant is indigent he could get a public defender for the criminal case.