Can I get a public defender before an arraignment?

In this day and age, when any criminal conviction is a permanent black mark on your personal and employment record, it would be wise to fight this case. It sounds like a close call to me. If you can borrow the money, hire a private lawyer. If not, wait til the court date and get the P.D.. Do NOT plead guilty to anything until you have explored all possible defenses. The problem you will run into is that the P.D. is understaffed and overworked, and they have to prioritize. The rape, homicide and robbery cases will get the lion's share of their time. You get what you pay for.

This may be an expensive lesson, but fight the case and try to avoid any conviction. You may actually not be guilty, and could qualify for a factual innocence finding later, to totally clean up your record, including sealing and destroying the arrest record itself.

You can review this article on my web site as well:

http://dinday.com/info04.htm

For info on factual innocence petitions, see these articles:

http://lawyer-expungement.com/petition.htm

and

http://lawyer-expungement.com/results.htm

You don't always get what you pay for when hiring a criminal defense attorney. Some of the best lawyers I know are public defenders, and there are some private attorneys who charge outrageous fees but aren't very capable.

It's true that public defenders are overworked, and those handling misdemeanors tend to be inexperienced and have huge caseload, while senior attorneys get the serious felonies -- and far fewer of them.

Be very wary if you're asked to pay a large retainer before you actually meet the attorney who will be representing you. (Of course, there are exceptions. People who live out of the area often hire me over the phone, but we at least talk on the phone first.)

Some "law firms" have big ads in the phone book, but are little more than an answering service. They send out a "case manager" who is not an attorney to scare you and collect your money, then hire a local lawyer to do the real work for a small percentage. You pay what a top local attorney would charge but get someone willing to work for peanuts.

As the California Court of Appeal put it:

"It is almost a truism that a criminal defendant would rather have the most inept private counsel than the most skilled and capable public defender. Often the arraigning judge appoints the public defender only to watch in silent horror as the defendant's family, having hocked the family jewels, hire a lawyer for him, sometimes a marginal misfit who is allowed to represent him only because of some ghastly mistake on the part of the Bar Examiners... " (People v. Huffman (1977) 71 Cal.App.3d 63, 70, fn.2.)