Are there things that a Public Defender can’t help me with?  The first answer to this question is very straight forward.  Public Defenders cannot help you with the implied consent process.  Typically, your attorney is appointed to you after your 10 day window to request a DMV Hearing has passed.  What this means is that if your license is important to you and you are interested in requesting a DMV Hearing to challenge a license suspension, you will need to hire another attorney to accomplish that.  You also have to option to do it yourself.

What is implied consent?

The second portion of this question is more about the reality of the system of the criminal justice system and court appointed attorney process.  As mentioned earlier, there is a greater need for Public Defenders than there are attorneys available to represent people facing criminal charges.  This inequality creates really large caseloads for the attorneys.  Your Public Defender is responsible for all of the people appointed to them.  This can often be up to 80 people (or more) at any given time.  To give some context to that number, our Reynolds Defense Firm attorneys typically have an average caseload of 15-25 people.  This smaller caseload allows our RDF attorneys to have a personal relationship with our clients.  This allows our team of lawyers to better advocate for their specific needs.

Why is it important for my Attorney to have“extra” time on my case?

Simple!  Based on the sheer volume of work that Public Defenders have, they often can’t spend as much time as they’d like to on your case.  This time crucial because it is spent to help make sure you’re not just a number to the judge or a police report.  Our goal is to make sure all relevant parties know that there is a person behind what’s going on here.  Managing so many cases makes it challenging to have the same level of connection.  This is essential to help a judge, to help a prosecutor understand who you are as a human being.

The way that the court system is set up, it is so easy to just process, to “churn” people through the court system without getting to know the person behind the arrest.  This is one of Reynolds Defense Firm’s biggest strengths.  It’s also a promise we make to everyone who chooses to hire us to represent them.  We make sure that the people that we stand next to in court are human beings to the judge and the prosecutor, not just a police report.  Since these are the people making decisions that affect your life, your family, your job, it’s important for them to understand who you are and what is important to you. Otherwise, it’s easier to make the same decision they made for the last 10 people they saw before you.