Defense Attorneys

Defense attorneys are lawyers who advise and represent persons accused of or convicted of criminal charges. They serve a unique and important role in the US adversarial system. Despite their significant role in the criminal justice system, the right to counsel is a relatively new concept and has been developed gradually. As most of the criminal defendants in the United States are indigent and cannot afford to retain a private counsel, the right to counsel is largely relying on the public defense system, which contains assigned counsel, contracted counsel, and public defender offices. Although many public defenders consistently face overload of cases and limited resources, research has shown that government‐appointed attorneys generally do as good a job as private attorneys.