Legal Question in Legal Malpractice in California

My friend was arrested on 12 charges of PC 288a. He was appointed a pubic defender. The first public defender that was appointed was too busy. The supervising public defender took over his case. She spent a total of 2 hours with him prior to arranging a horrible plea bargain in which he had told her he was innocent. He had thought he was in good hands just by her being the supervising attorney. He's never been in any legal trouble and he thought that because she was an attorney, she would defend him.She kept apologizing to him for failing to meet with him, she would text other attorney's during her short visits. I had sent her information regarding Facebook entries which would have contradicted the states claims. She looked into nothing. She did not interview or call any witnesses. She did absolutely nothing to investigate his case. He plead no contest out of fear. I have hired a criminal attorney and he has not been sentenced as of yet.The criminal attorney has confirmed that she did absolutely zero investigation in his behalf . It's egregious. The attorney is filing a motion for ineffective assistance of counsel. My friend is indigent due to being incarcerated. I am helping financially because it was so unjust but I can't really afford to pay for an investigation (but I am) which the state should have done. The supervising public defender that led him into this deal also delayed getting her file over to the new attorney. The criminal attorney that I hired found this extremely shocking after he reviewed her file and she's the supervising public defender.


Asked on 1/21/14, 9:47 am

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Answered on 1/21/14, 1:19 pm


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