My son's case has "finished" at least through the court system. When I was first in this predicament I had no clue what to do. I am originally from Texas where a public defender is just an attorney picked at random from a pool of attorneys in the area. And, I worked for an attorney there who was given a case as a public defender. The last thing he wanted to do was actually defend the guy. In the Seattle/King County area we have public defenders that are paid for by the county. This is because Washington State has a law that makes 13 year-olds adults in the eyes of the law for certain professions, lawyers being one of them.
Please note, what I am about to say is NOT LEGAL ADVICE. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know what your situation is. I can only tell you what has happened to us and how I personally would have done it differently for our situation. You have to decide for your own situation and finances. Because many lawyers will give you a free consultation, consulting a lawyer for your situation is the only advice I can give you.
When I went searching for what to do, the only sage advice I came by was that where an area has public defender offices, it is better to go with the public defender -- as long as they appear to be doing the job -- because they have a better relationship with the prosecutor's office. The problem is "as long as they appear to be doing their job." The only way you can possibly know is if they are actually discussing the case with you. In order for that to happen your child must sign paperwork both when they are underage and when they turn 18 for the public defender to discuss the case with you. In our situation, my son told his attorney multiple times, including once in front of me, that she had permission to discuss his case with me. She never had him sign the paper work and I only received 6 phone calls from her within a 20-month time period.
The problem with a dedicated public defenders office is that just like the prosecutor's office they have a limited budget. That means they want and need as many people to take plea deals as much as the prosecutor's office does. And they WILL, and did with us, manipulate and coerce you (pressuring me to pressure my son) to take a plea deal.
They will also consult with your child, including giving and explaining the plea deal (if they actually explain it) without you being present. I've seen multiple 13 year-olds being given their plea deal with a subtle lack of help, but expectation that the child sign it without another adult being present.
When we first started this hell-filled journey, we were told by his attorney he would probably get 2-3 years. We were pressured to take a plea deal where the prosecutor would still recommend the regular sentence, but allow the public defender to recommend a lower sentence. That was the "best" plea deal we were ever offered or as I said, "How the hell is this any different than going to trial, just without the trial?" We were told that his attorney would recommend 4 years, which neither of us were happy with, but we finally went with it due to their pressure. Two days before trial instead of submitting the promised brief to the court, his attorney submitted a "recommendation" filing stating she was recommending 5 years instead of the 4. When you go into sentencing, the judge basically rubber stamps this. (So you public defender is determining how long you will serve. I'm still trying to figure out how this is even legal.)
If I were able to do this over, I would have let the public defender deal with the initial months of arraignment and continuances while I found a good attorney who had experience in juvenile law. This is actually harder than it seems as there does't appear to be a lot of attorneys who practice juvenile law. Even when I did call attorneys none of them returned my calls.
The other thing to consider is that, according to studies that I've read, the average amount people pay an attorney outside of a public defender is a year's salary, most likely dependent on the seriousness of the charge. I've also read that in some places you will be expected to pay a fee to the court that helps pay for the public defender. You should definitely find out if that is true for you. If you're going to pay for an attorney one way or the other, make sure they're working for you.
Finally, a public defender's role is not to create a robust defense, which may seem backwards. Because you are supposedly innocent before being found guilty, they are really only there to make sure that the defendant's rights are not abused or trampled on.
