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Looking for a Pro Bono criminal attorney? Here are your options - YouTube
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in today's video we're talking about pro
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bono criminal defense lawyers a lot of
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the times people will be charged with
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crimes they want to hire an attorney but
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they just simply cannot afford it so we
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get calls from people who say hey I've
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been charged with this offense I need a
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pro bono lawyer is there anything you
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can help me with can you represent me
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for free well unfortunately our law firm
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can't we just don't have the capacity to
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work for free and so we are what we
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consider private attorneys and we charge
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a fee for our services for
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representation there are most criminal
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defense attorneys are going to be in
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this category they're going to be
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charging a fee for representation the
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reason why is because pro bono attorneys
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really don't exist in the criminal
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defense space except for very specific
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areas things like the Justice Project
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where somebody's wrongfully convicted or
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there are certain special niche groups
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that will take cases on a no fee basis
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because they get funding from other
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sources they get donors and they have
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big fundraising abilities and so they
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are able to support the people working
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on the case from those funds whereas we
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as a private criminal defense attorney
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we don't get any government money we
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don't do any fundraising the way that we
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keep our lights on in our building is by
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charging people a fee for our expertise
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for representing them what about the
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people though who cannot afford an
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attorney do they get representation are
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they just totally out of luck well no
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they're not the government provides
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attorneys these people are called public
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defenders and so if we look at it we
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have a couple different categories of
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types of representation that somebody
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can get when they're charged with the
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crime you have a category here we call
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them p d--'s public defenders and you
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have private attorneys now public
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defenders there are a couple different
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categories within public defenders so in
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some cities like the City of Scottsdale
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the City of Phoenix different cities
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they actually will contract with private
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attorneys so these are people who have
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their own private practice they can be
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small law firms but they will cat will
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have a contract with them so that person
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will have their private practice but
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we'll also take a contract where they
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will take some cases that are assigned
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to them from the city court so if
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somebody goes into court and they're
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charged with DUI and they can't afford
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to go hire a private attorney their case
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will be assigned to somebody else so for
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example the City of Scottsdale they
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don't have a full public defender's
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office where they employ people full
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time to represent people charged with
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crimes they will contract these out to
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private attorneys now the private
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attorney is still getting paid a fee in
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order to take that case so this into the
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individual who is charged with the crime
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may not have to come out of pocket at
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all that representation is being
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provided for by the government so rather
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than looking for a pro bono attorney if
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you are somebody who has been charged
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with a crime you're gonna want to see if
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the court will appoint a public defender
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now there's a bad stigma about public
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defenders people will often say that
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public defenders are the cheap lawyers
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are not any good and whatever blah blah
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blah there's a lot of kind of bad stigma
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around that that's not been my
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experience at all I think a lot of
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people who are private attorneys who
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have contracts with the with the
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different cities are all very good very
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capable attorneys a lot of the times
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they just don't have the amount of time
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or the resources to put in that a
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private attorney would but that doesn't
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mean that they're bad lawyers that they
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don't care or anything like that there
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is also another type of entity if you're
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charged with a major felony if you're
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charged with something that's a bit more
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serious than a misdemeanor at the city
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level you may be assigned a case from
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the public defender's office so there is
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an entity in Maricopa County and in most
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counties where they will assign you a
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public defender now this person's job
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full-time is to accept cases and
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represent people who are charged with
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crimes for their salary there that's
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part of their salary they don't have a
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private practice so they don't have any
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of this going on their full-time public
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defenders and those people are also
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highly qualified okay they're they're
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highly qualified they've got a lot of
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training they have good training
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programs there and they're not bad
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attorneys at all so just because you're
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assigned a public defender it doesn't
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mean that you're getting some subpar
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attorney now sometimes like I said
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they don't have the the resources or the
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or the follow-up that you might find
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from a private defense law firm like
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ours we have a one-to-one relationship
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with a lot of people we have direct
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access to legal assistance and so you
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get phone calls from us back within 24
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business hours that's our internal
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policy but you may not get that same
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sort of level of customer services
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you're gonna get with a public defender
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but it doesn't mean that they're a bad
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attorney the other question that we get
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regarding free attorneys or
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court-appointed attorneys is some
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sometimes people will want an attorney
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and they'll expect the court to assign
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them an attorney even though they're not
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eligible for it so just because you're
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charged with a crime doesn't mean that
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you are automatically guaranteed to have
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an attorney assigned to you generally
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the standard is you may be eligible for
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an assigned public attorney or a
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court-appointed attorney
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if the government is seeking jail if
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they're seeking jail time in your case
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they may they are legally obligated now
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to then appoint you an attorney if you
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want one and sometimes people will come
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to us and they will not be charged with
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a crime that has mandatory jail to be
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charged with a criminal speeding ticket
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or a reckless driving ticket or maybe
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they were charged with a misdemeanor
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offense where they're were charged with
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a disorderly conduct or a criminal
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speeding or something along those lines
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and in those types of situations there
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is no ability to have an attorney
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publicly appointed from the government
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there's just no requirement that they do
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that so it is something that is
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important if you did want to have an
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attorney appointed to you you you want
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to make sure that you're charged with a
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crime where the government is seeking
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jail if they're not seeking jail they
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have no obligation to give you an
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attorney when also you're going and
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asking for an attorney the government
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may want to do a financial background on
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you they may want to see whether or not
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you can afford to go hire your private
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attorney or contribute a certain amount
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of funds to the public defender who is
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being appointed to you so in other words
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you have to pay part of the fee for the
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attorney so I hope this helps a lot of
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the times people will call us at me
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looking for pro bono that's really not
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the right language to use most private
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law firms will not take cases on a pro
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bono basis what they'll do is they'll
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say we charge a fee they may reduce
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their fee they may give you a more
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reasonable fee but they still need to
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get funding from somewhere so if you're
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looking for a pro bono attorney what
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you're really looking for is a public
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defender and those are the obligations
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that you have to do if you want to be
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appointed one you have the government
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has to be seeking jail and then you have
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to do a financial affidavit you have to
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make sure that you can afford to either
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contribute to it or you can't afford it
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at all and they'll just appoint it to
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you and they'll cover the total costs so
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I hope that helps hopefully if you're
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charged with the crime you recognize the
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importance of an attorney regardless of
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whether it's a private attorney or a
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public defender or anybody else it's
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very important that you have counsel as
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you go through this experience because
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facing criminal charges is obviously a
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very difficult situation to be in
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I hope this helps if you have any
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questions about it if you want to speak
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with my team give us a call we offer
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free case evaluation and look forward to
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speaking with you
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take care
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