I’m again in Las Vegas for the annual Public Defender’s Retreat.  This is my fifth time attending this conference.  My first year there was less than a handful of Ontario attendees.  This year, there are apparently 75-100 of us attending from Ontario.

Retreat organizer David Rendahl (whom I interviewed last year on video) opened the conference this morning by talking about the “Public Defender Attitude”, the motto of the conference.  Dave relayed a story of one of his first trial experiences.  His client has been charged with being involved with a bar fight (I assume there were some injuries) and was in custody pending his trial.  He was looking at a sentence of 4-6 years.  Dave’s client was steadfast in asserting his innocence – he was at the bar but had no involvement in the fight.

Before trial Dave was approached by the prosecutor.  The prosecutor explained that they had figured out that Dave’s client was not involved with the fight.  Dave was then told that his client could plead guilty to a misdemeanour and be released from custody.  Clearly, there is something wrong here.  Why should a factually innocent client have to plead guilty to anything?  The prosecutor, when confronted with this issue, took the position of “we made you an offer”.  Naturally, when presented with the option of taking the guilty plea or taking a risk of proceeding to trial (even if the risk was minimal), Dave’s client accepted the deal (in California one can plead “no contest”, so Dave was not face with the issue of his client having to admit to facts which he took the position were untrue).

This story, which clearly has had an affect on Dave, demonstrates the notion of the “public defender attitude”.  In the face of extreme criticism from so many parties (prosecutors, Judges, victims, the public), criminal defence lawyers are generally the first and only line of defence for our clients.

This blog post was written by Toronto Criminal Lawyer Adam Goodman. Adam can be reached at 416-477-6793 or by email at adam@aglaw.ca.