Wisdom Grows

Shout out to Letters of Marque, Sua Sponte, Screaming Bean, Jeremy Richey, Jeremy Blachman, and Transmogriflaw. Thanks to them, Blawg Wisdom is slowly becoming populated with links to great tips and gems of advice from successful law students around the "blawgosphere." As I read through some of the posts I'm impressed once again with the generosity and breadth of knowledge and experience and opinion displayed by so many blawgers. If I could only go back about two years and know then what I know now thanks to all of you...

But even though that's not possible, that's no reason to keep the benefits of our experience from those who are following in our footsteps. So again, if you have written or read a law school advice post on a blawg somewhere, please drop me an email so I can add a link to that post at Blawg Wisdom.

New: If you don't have a blawg of your own, but would like to pass on any tips or bits of advice to other law students about your law school experience, please send your wisdom to me and I'll make sure it gets posted at Blawg Wisdom.

Finally, here's a little experiment: Can the LazyWeb tell me the best way to automate Blawg Wisdom so that when someone writes a blog post containing advice for law students, that post automatically gets copied (and posted) to Blawg Wisdom?

Posted 10:41 AM | Comments (5) | advice meta-blogging

Private v. Public Defenders

One lesson I've learned this summer as an intern for a public defender is that, if you qualify (which means, if you're poor to penniless), you're likely going to get better representation from a public defender than you'll get from a private defense attorney.

But wait! Before I get pilloried by private defense attorneys, let me qualify that. Different jurisdictions may be different; I only know about the one I'm working in where time and again this summer I've seen private defense attorneys forget things or pass up opportunities that the public defenders would never miss. The public defenders work in the same courts every day, they develop relationships with the prosecutors and learn how to "pitch" cases in order to secure the most favorable plea offers, and they know the everyday criminal procedure inside and out so they can give their clients the benefit of every possible loophole or trick available. Also, because they're in the same courts before the same judges every day, they learn what kind of arguments work best with different judges, how to read the judges' moods to know how far they can push, how to read the subtle signs judges send when they want to hear more on an issue or when they want you to shut up. (Sometimes this can make all the difference; if you talk too long, you may just anger the judge and he'll decide to rule against you just because you annoyed him by talking too much about something he'd already made up his mind about.)

In contrast, private practitioners often just don't seem to know what's going on. They don't understand court procedure, when to speak, when to stand, where to go to file papers, what papers need to be filed or signed or by whom or at what time. Of course, this varies a great deal; a lot of private defenders are simply excellent. Also, some private defenders are much better with certain types of cases in which they specialize, such as capital cases, or rape or other serious offenses.

However, there's one more drawback to private defense attorneys: the profit problem. Since private defenders sometimes bill by the hour, it's to their advantage to drag cases out, while the client just wants the case to end. For example, a private defender might encourage her client to go to trial, even if there's little chance this will help the client. Public defenders have the same incentive as their clients—both want to get the case over and done with as soon as possible. The client wants this because no one likes the uncertainty of unsettled criminal charges against them. The defender wants this because he/she is busy and needs to make time for the next case.

I'm told that many private defenders charge a flat fee according to the type of crime a client is charged with; in such a case, the private defender has the same incentive to end the case quickly as the client does. That's a good thing.

On the other side of the coin, private defenders can potentially make a lot more money than their public counterparts. However, at least in the jurisdiction I've been working in, you don't always get what you pay for; in this jurisdiction, the cheaper defense is the best defense. That's the kind of economy I can love.

Posted 10:14 AM | Comments (4) | 1L summer