Legal Question in Criminal Law in Illinois

In june 2013 I had a court case in which an ex friend of mine was pressing charges against me of disorderly conduct. I showed up to court and when my name was called i told one of the court officials i was pleading not guilty because im innocent. My case ended up being last for some reason and when i was called to the stand i didnt have a public defender as i was told. i told the judge my side of the story and she told hers. there was a man inbetween the two of us who asked me questions , and then asked her questions. He then picked her side and told the judge that he should consider her side as the truth and suggested i pay a maximum fine and take a class of some sort.. Why were assigned the same defender? who was this guy? ive never been to court before so im not really sure how its supposed to work. i ended up gettin court supervision and having to pay a fine.


Asked on 12/08/13, 1:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Zuganelis Zuganelis & Zuganelis, Attorneys at Law, P.C.

He was an Assistant State's Attorney, the prosecutor. He wasn't a neutral party. You could have had your own attorney, but you would have had to hire him/her. You are only entitled to an attorney if you are facing jail time. You are entitled to a Public Defender only if you fall within the federal governments guidelines as being poor. Apparently you fit neither profile. Public Defenders are for poor people, not those who don't want to pay for an attorney.

As for the supervision: you will not have a record, and 2 years after the supervision is over you will be able to expunge it from your record. Please be smart and hire a lawyer to do that. Abraham Lincoln once said that "Anyone who has himself for an attorney, has a fool for a client."

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Answered on 12/09/13, 5:10 am


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