Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: refuse to state client requests to judge

Offhand, I'm not even sure community service is an option for punishing a violation of probation. If it isn't, then the lawyer should not ask for it. A lawyer not only *can* but *should* refuse a client's demand that the lawyer seek a sentence forbidden by law.

Even if community service is available in some VOP cases, the facts of your case might make it implausible that the judge would impose such a sentence. (You didn't say anything about your specific facts, so I don't know if this is the situation or not.) Your lawyer's objective is supposed to be to get you the lightest sentence possible, and he may feel that an unrealistic proposal will ultimately result in a harsher sentence than would a reasonable proposal. This is a tactical decision, and lawyers generally are supposed to make tactical decisions according to their professional judgment -- regardless of how vehemently the client may disagree.

The fact that your probation is almost finished does not mean you should get a lighter sentence for violating it. If the law worked that way, probationers would lose some of their incentive to comply with the court's orders as the end of their probation approaches. A violation is a violation whether your probation just began or is about to end, and the appropriate way to determine punishment is to base it on the nature of the violation and not on the timing.

The last part of your question is a bit hard to understand. A lawyer does not need to ask the court for permission to bring witnesses, so failing to get permission is not an issue. And the fact that the lawyer is willing to pay for the witness's expenses instead of making the client pay strikes me as a good thing, not a bad thing. If the client prefers that the ex-girlfriend not testify but the lawyer feels her testimony is important and helpful, then the lawyer gets to make the decision. This is another tactical matter and, as I explained above, tactical decisions are for the attorney to make.

You hired your lawyer so that you could benefit from his experience, his knowledge and his judgment. He is supposed to use those assets to your advantage and not simply follow instructions which he believes would leave you worse off.

If your doctor recommended medication and you insisted on surgery which he feels is unwise, should the doctor obey your insturction and perform the surgery? Of course not. You don't know how to make that kind of decision, and the reason you pay the doctor is because he does. The same is true of your lawyer.

With lawyers as with doctors, you can get a second opinion. That might be what you are trying to do here, but without detailed facts about your case there is no way for anyone to offer such an opinion. The limited information you have provided does not suggest to me that your lawyer has done anything improper; in fact, it seems he is going to extraordinary lengths to help you.