Public defenders are good lawyers

It probably depends somewhat on your jurisdiction. But as a California prosecutor for the last three decades who has opposed hundreds of lawyers, I can say that on the average, public defenders are better at defending criminal defendants than are private attorneys. This is for at least three reasons. First, public defenders do nothing but defend criminal cases, day in and day out. They get lots of practice. They are up on the very latest law. Second, public defenders don't have to worry about running a business. Contrary to popular belief, they have (and again, I speak only from my California experience) more resources to throw at a case than private attorneys, who have to depend on the client's resources to fund the case. (In that regard, they are on more or less equal footing with prosecution offices, which are also subject to public funding.) Thus, public defenders' offices have full-time investigative staffs simply unavailable to private attorneys. Third, public defenders have their fellow public defenders to act as quality control, again for free. A public defender attorney will have both supervisors and colleagues keeping an eye on his or her work. Private attorneys do not have that luxury. The absolute worst work I have seen done in criminal defense has been by private attorneys.

All this is not to say that there are no good private criminal defense attorneys out there. There are some stellar ones. I have seen their work too. My point, though, as that on average, a public defender is going to be better for the client than a private attorney.

It saddens me when I see defendants' families bankrupting themselves to pay for a private attorney to supposedly give their son (almost always a son) a "better" lawyer. It almost never works out that way.

Morever, just as with any other profession, you have your stars and you have your rotten apples.

I have two close friends who are public defenders and they are very principled and hard working lawyers who do their best everyday for their clients.

I know other public defenders who are overworked and just go through the motions to get through their caseload.

The public defenders have a tough job though because unlike the prosecutor, who can pretty much pick which case they file and take on in court, the public defender does not get the choice of cases, and if the DA files, it's probably not going to be a stinker which the public defender can win easily.

The public defender also has to carry a big caseload and deal with clients who aren't always the smartest or nicest people in society.

My friends tell me how difficult it is sometimes to work with repeat offenders who are still thinking they will get off because the system owes it to them and the public defender who doesn't get them a sweet deal is incompetent.

My friends tell me how common it is for them to be demeaned by their own clients all the time.  The clients would ask if they had to be public defenders because they were not good enough to be hired by the DA or a private firm.  The clients also asked if someday the public defender might prove himself and then be able to get a real job as a lawyer elsewhere.  Those are very insulting because a public defender goes to the same school and takes the same tests as any other lawyer to get the license to practice. They just work for a different employer and they don't get to pick who they represent.

Then they get constant threats from their appointed clients who always say they will sue or file a complaint with the state if the public defender doesn't get them a sweet deal or get them acquitted, even though they were caught red handed and gave a confession.

So in all, I would never cast a broad net over public defenders by saying they are not good lawyers, quite the contrary.  I might not like what they do and the people they represent, but I respect them for doing a very tough job.