I've been charged with a crime but don't think I can hire a lawyer. What do I do?

I've been charged with a crime but don't think I can hire a lawyer. What do I do?

In criminal matters in the United States, you have a constitutional right to a lawyer. In the Miranda Rights that you hear police on TV saying to people they're arresting, you'll always hear the sentence, "if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you."

What this means is that if it's determined that you don't have the financial resources to pay for an attorney, the Public Defender's office will appoint one of their attorneys to your case.

Is this lawyer good? What if I'm unhappy with my public defender?

There's no requirement that you keep your public defender, but your other options may be to represent yourself or to borrow money to hire an outside lawyer.

Maybe the Public Defender's office has a process for getting assigned a new attorney from within the office but you'll need to speak with them directly about that.

If you think hiring an outside lawyer may be what's necessary to get for you the result you deserve, then it may be beneficial for you to speak with a qualified criminal defense lawyer to get a second opinion. If your criminal matter is in Riverside County and you'd like to speak with a criminal defense lawyer about your case, please contact the Riverside County Lawyer Referral Service. http://riversidelrs.org/