Reader’s Question:

My father got arrested for DUI here in Birmingham, Alabama and we are in the process of getting a lawyer? What are the disadvantages of getting a public defender to help my father in his DUI case?

Horace

Birmingham, AL

There could be serious disadvantages in having a public defender in your father’s DUI case in Birmingham, Alabama. First is that you may not qualify financially for the services of a public defender. Another disadvantage is that you can’t choose the public defender because one would be assigned to your father’s DUI case. If the two of them don’t click, the court would rarely allow your father to select a different one. One other thing is that a public defender would not handle the DMV part of your father’s DUI case. This is very important because fighting the DMV part of his DUI case is inextricably tied to fighting the criminal part.

Lastly and probably most importantly, public defenders could rarely devote the sort of time, energy and resources to working up your father’s DUI case that a good private lawyer could. Well, not that the public defender would not like to but the reality is, they have so many cases, pressures and responsibilities that this sort of devotion to any particular DUI case is not a luxury they could afford.

Tags: DMV, DUI, DUI lawyer