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Is firing my Federal Public Defender Justified and did I go about it the right way?

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Schoenmann

New member
So upon being released per federal detention hearing I have written a letter to my Federal Defenders Supervisor. I feel my 6th amendment rights are being violated for the following reasons 1) He tried talking me out of a detention hearing, I had to request 4 times and a fifth time in writing before he would acknowledge the request 2) I was in jail for 4 months on a Federal Hold with drug distribution charges, while there I requested my FULL discovery at least 8 times, in person and through message, He refuses to give it to me, he provided me a small packet and told me the rest doesn't matter and its too much to print. One time he said it was 1,000 pages and the next time he said 10,000. I still have not seen my full discovery. 3) My lawyer has not asked me about my case and seems to assume im guilty, we had a pretrial motion hearing last week and I received a letter that he sent to the judge saying we had no pretrial motions and he discussed this with me fully, he also stated I waive my right to appear at the hearing. We never fully discussed anything and I never told him I waive my right to appear. I feel I am being treated unfairly and am expected to just be run through the system no questions asked. Are my grounds for requesting other council justified and did I do the right thing bringing it to his supervisors attention rather than the judge? Any help is great. Thank You
 


quincy

Senior Member
Thank you for providing the name of your state. That is information requested if all posters to this forum.

If you feel your current attorney is not representing you properly, you should first try to discuss this with your attorney. If unsatisfied with what your attorney says (or if he again fails to respond to your request for a meeting), you can contact the public defenders office to express your concern that your attorney is failing to represent you properly.

And you can also request a court hearing for a change of counsel.

At the court hearing, you will be presenting (to the same judge who will be hearing your case) your reason(s) for wanting a different attorney. You will need to prepare carefully for this hearing.

What you say in the hearing about your case potentially could compromise your case.

A lack of communication can be a legitimate reason for requesting a new attorney IF this lack of communication can be seen as unreasonable.

Not responding to every email you send if you are in the habit of sending several, and not providing you with all of the documents that will be used by the attorney in court, would not be unreasonable.

Good luck.
 

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