Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

The public defender is a court-appointed attorney. Unless representing you would pose a conflict of interests for the PD, that is whom the court will appoint. Many large counties have one or more alternative public defender offices that can step in when the regular PD has a conflict. If there is no PD office which can represent you, then the court will appoint a private lawyer at public expense.

Note that some counties have contracted with private law firms instead of maintaining their own public defender's office. If your case is in one of those counties, then you will get a lawyer from that firm. If there is a conflict the court will look first to any alternate firms under contract. If there are none or they also have a conflict, the court will appoint someone from private practice.

I agree with Mr. Hoffman. The public defender is your court appointed attorney. Public defenders are dedicated to that task and assigned to represent indigent defendants who cannot afford a private attorney of their own. In my experience they have a lot of experience, and most of the time do a better job than private attorneys.