Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

All this means is that the public defender on the case had a conflict of interest (usually due to representing witnesses or co-defendants previously). Your fiance is merely getting a private attorney, that is paid for his services by the state, to represent him. He should now direct questions to that attorney.

It is pretty simple. If you can't afford and attorney you are appointed a public defender. However the PD sometimes has conflicts (if there were a co-defendant(s) or your fiance has previously been a victim or witness in a case where the PD was appointed). If there is a conflict you are appointed an attorney from Regional Counsel which is similar to the PDs office but for conflicts. However regional counsel probably had the same problem as the PDs office. When this happens, there is a list of private attorneys in the community that take on cases where there are conflicts. These attorneys agree to take the cases on reduced fees which are paid by the local court system.

So basically an private practice attorney from the conflict list has been appointed to represent him in place of the PD.