Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

Firing Public Defender

I am having my third trial on the same criminal charges in about a month; and due to the expense of having private counsel for the first two trials I now have a Public Defender. The Public Defender was assigned my case in Jan 2005 and at that time I indicated to them and the court that I would likely need an expert witness to testify on my behalf for the third trial; of course this would be at the state's expense. I have repeatedly reminded my Public Defender during the course of the intervening months that I need an expert. The Public Defender has been dragging his feet on this and told me only last week that I probably will need an expert. Then he tells me that in order for me to get the expert that they would have to file for a continuance to allow an expert to get �up to speed� on my case prior to trail. It is likely that the court will not allow a continuance since the trial is scheduled for next month. So there is a very real possibility that my defense will be severely hampered all because my Public Defender didn�t listen to me at the beginning.

My question is can I fire my Public Defender for not acting sooner on this? And, if so, how do I do this?


Asked on 7/19/05, 11:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Fenaughty FENAUGHTY & ASSOCIATES, PC

Re: Firing Public Defender

If the expert is so crucial, look to the reports of the expert from the first two trials. Try to get excerpts from those admitted, or at least show those reports to the pd to show how critical this expert testimony is.

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Answered on 7/20/05, 9:15 am


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