Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Forced To Represent Client?
In any criminal case a defendant is entitled to an attorney even if they cannot afford one; the same defendant is also entitled to an attorney who is free from a potential conflict of interest.
This normally does not create a problem unless there are multiple co-defendants, who cannot afford a private attorney.
Clearly the public defender would be appointed to represent the first defendant, but what about the others? If the public defender’s office represented more than one defendant there could be a conflict of interest. after all, how could the same office be expected to do what is best for each defendant individually. In any criminal case the defense lawyer must look out for his or her client individually; even if that comes at the expense of others charged. The defense attorney must always be able to use the argument: “the other guy did it” or ” the other guy made my client do it”.
