According to a new study recently published by the RAND Corporation, just providing an indigent defendant a lawyer is not enough to “obtain justice”.
The issues that directly affect the outcome include: whether the lawyer assigned is screened for quality, whether they are trained to handle the client’s type of case, and whether they are paid enough to cover the time required. Based on the study and these factors, RAND was able to establish that the clients with court appointed representation (like in the felony cases that were provided) are unlikely to get fair treatment versus clients who are able to afford private representation— whether in the Philadelphia system (like in this study) or anywhere else.
Read more from the New York Times Editorial here and the complete RAND study here.