Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Self representation

Loss rate is about 96%

Re: Self representation

Most district attorney's offices have convistion rates in the 80 to 90% range. Most criminal cases are defended by attorney's thus the rate of wins by individuals representing themselves is very low.

Overall the success rate for appeals is 10 to 11%.

Re: Self representation

Being your own lawyer in a criminal case is usually a Really Bad Idea if there are any significant negative consequences. For example, most misdemeanors in California carry a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $10,000 fine, don't assume you won't get this if you are convicted. Criminal cases happen in two stages, plea bargaining and trial. Plea bargaining is like a poker game in that the quality of the plea offer you get can depend on the DA's estimation of how likely you are to prevail at trial. This estimation is going to be a lot lower if you are a self-represented courtroom newbie, and a lot higher if you are represented by a lawyer with a good reputation. Therefore, the deals you are offered are likely to be a lot worse. Also, you do not play every day in the same "casino," the DA and the local attorneys face each other often and an experienced attorney will know whether the deal you are offered is a good or a bad deal. Many types of criminal convictions will interfere with your ability to get or keep a job. Unless the charged offense is really trivial, on the order of littering or some other infraction, you would almost always be well advised to throw yourself on the mercy of your Mom or Dad and beg or borrow the money for a lawyer. Trying to do your own criminal trial or appeal as an untrained amateur would be courtroom suicide.