Do You Get What You Pay For?: Type of Counsel and Its Effect on Criminal Court Outcomes

• NCJ Number: 232480
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2010 Pages: 1063-1070
• Author(s): Richard D. Hartley; Holly Ventura Miller; Cassia Spohn
• Date Published: September 2010
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The current study tested the assertion that 'you get what you pay for' by examining the effect of type of counsel (public defenders versus private attorneys) on four different case processing outcomes for a large midwestern jurisdiction.

Abstract

Although the sixth amendment of the Constitution guarantees assistance of counsel to indigent criminal defendants, questions exist about the quality of this representation. Critics assert that 'you get what you pay for' and that public defenders are less effective than privately retained counsel regarding criminal justice outcomes. Some research, however, reveals that public defenders are as effective as privately retained counsel because of their working relationships with prosecutors and judges, the so-called courtroom workgroup. Results of the current study generally show that type of counsel has no significant direct effect. Tests for interaction, however, suggest that for some defendants, type of counsel interacts with other key variables to influence certain outcomes. Tables, notes, and references (Published Abstract)