Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Changing Court Appointed Attorney

I would ask to speak to your lawyer's supervisor.

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Re: Changing Court Appointed Attorney

In California courts it would be a Marsden hearing. This case was based on the decision in Wainwright (1963) 372 U.S. 335 [9 L.Ed.2d 799, 83 S.Ct. 792, 93 A.L.R.2d 733]. That case held that a criminal defendant had the right to be represented by an attorney, and the one must be appointed to represent the defendant when he is unable to afford to retain an attorney. Further that the defendant has the right to be represented by a compentent attoreny. A motion to determine whether the attorney is compentently representing the defendant would be proper. You must be able to give specific examples of what the attorney is doing or more commonly not doing that would be required for you to have adequate representation.