Your Choice Of Attorney Matters

If it were up to us, Wisconsin would rank first in things like quality of life, best place to raise a family, and best place to practice law. Unfortunately, a recent report from The Sentencing Project places Wisconsin at the top of a category that highlights racial disparities in our criminal justice system. “The report found that despite black people accounting for just 6% of Wisconsin’s population, they make up 42% of the state’s prison population and are incarcerated at 12 times the rate of white people.”

This is no accident. There have long been racial disparities in sentencing and incarceration. With such troubling outcomes, it appears to be no coincident that a group that has traditionally been financially poorer also has poorer outcomes in the criminal justice system. While Gideon v. Wainwright granted poor defendants the right to have a lawyer regardless of ability to pay, having the means to pay can make all the difference in the quality of defense representation available.

Public defenders mean well and many of them are wonderful attorneys. Unfortunately, they are often burdened with an extreme case load due to a lack of funding and unable to provide their clients with the hands-on representation they would like to provide. One seemingly minor oversight is all it takes to turn a criminal case in a bad direction for defendants, so it is crucial to have an attorney who can focus on your case and minimize your exposure to a conviction.

You’re among the fortunate if you have the means to choose your own defense counsel. If you have been accused of a crime it is crucial not to take that choice lightly.