Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Washington

Constitutional Right to Attorney

The roots of the constitutional right to an attorney for an indigent originated in the Warren Court in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright which came from Bay County (Panana City) Florida. The writ which was hand written by Mr. Gideon resulted in the provision of a lawyer for Mr. Gideon who was indigent, a new trial, and subsequent acquittal of the burglary he was originally charged and convicted with. Simultaneous and implicit in the right to counsel is the right to effective, not ineffective, counsel. The appellate courts normally will find ineffective counsel in indigent cases only where there is such an egregious instance of ineffective counsel that it is clear the attorney was so ineffective that substantive due process rights were impaired. I would suggest that you make an appointment and sit down with your attorney and do two things: 1) Just ask straight away whether he or she is too busy to devote adequate time to your case and 2) tell them that you are available to do as much leg work in the case as possible such as putting together a written time line of events, witnesses, physical evidence, etc. You should do that anyway to prepare your case, but doing it for your lawyer makes things more simple for the lawyer and also creates a record for you of what was provided.If after you've at least sat down and spoken frankly with your court appointed lawyer you're still not satisfied, make an appointment with the head of the indigent defender office where you live and discuss it with them. The more time spent in preparation of your case can pay big dividends at trial. I had a case in Louisiana with a fellow charged with pulling a gun on three police officers. We spent two days preparing for trial and I told him the odds of acquittal were slim and none. The day of trial one policeman was on vacation, another had been injured and was unavailable, and the third didn't show up. The result was dismissal of the case, so you just never know.I hope this helps. Thanks for your inquiry.