ABA drops props on public defenders

Most public defenders don’t give much thought to the ABA; many are not even members. Still, it’s nice when the largest volunteer professional organization in the country puts in a positive word for us. Two weeks ago they asked: What media misconception about your practice, the legal profession or the law in general has you constantly trying to set the record straight?

Last week they picked the #9 comment (scroll down) from “Ugh” as the best answer to that question. “Ugh” wrote:

That no matter how a criminal case is, if the defendant can afford a top dollar criminal attorney, that attorney can just abracadabra the charges away.

Yeah, that’s a pretty good answer. Of course, the #5 response from “Devin” was pretty great, too:

The media’s portrayal of public defenders as little more than
incompetent attorneys with no fashion sense as well as that they are inexplicably “evil” in that they get “off” the “guilty”. When will it be recognized that a defendant in a criminal proceeding has the right to representation and a presumption of innocence until found guilty by a jury of their peers?

It’s not much, but in the whole Dangerfield spirit, we’ll take what we can get.

The ABA’s most recent question of the week asks whether lawyers feel they are victims of an educational hoax after paying so much for their degrees. I have a feeling a lot of public defenders with a mountain of debt and a paltry monthly paycheck might have something to say about that, too…. (See, e.g., #66 & 96.)