My life has been too boring to talk about for the last two days.

Here's my thoughts about doing public defender work:

With enough time and resources I could put up a fantastic defense in almost any case. I could file twenty page motions to challenge the admission of evidence, dismiss for failure to state a claim or meet some jurisdiction defect. I could hire numerous experts to rebut physical evidence. I could do mock trials to test my case. I could create appealable issue after appealable issue. Any case is potentially winnable.

Check out the movie Reversal of Fortune sometime. Anyone who feels inspired by the appeal done by Alan Dershowitz that got Klaus Von Bulow out of jail ought to have their head examined. It's a testament to the power of Dershowitz's ego, and shows what unlimited resources and time can do in the criminal system. Most murderers don't get twenty free Harvard law students spending weeks preparing an appeal.

It all depends on resources and time, and the real deal is I don't have either of them. I have typically have 50 active cases at one time, each of which has an average turnaround time of two months. Averaging it out I'd say for each case I spend an average of an hour meeting with a client, an hour in court, three hours preparing and reviewing evidence, an hour and a half doing research, and half an hour in negotiations.

Preparing a motion takes the better part of a day. Even for the most basic trial I need a half day to prep. Preparing an appeal may take a few days.

What this means is that money talks and you get a different kind of representation when you have it to spend. This is why people like OJ win. It's the hidden rule of thumb. First time you screw up you loose your money: either paying your lawyers for your defense, or in the civil law suit the victim files afterwards. Second time through you get the second class defense and you end up in jail.