Comments on: Proposed Ethics Opinion: Defense Lawyers May Assist the State in Responding to Claims of Ineffective Assistance

By: Leigh

Leigh — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:40:57 +0000

I would like to know if during a plea hearing the Judge states that there is a bill of informaton thst needs to be signed but continues without the signature from the defendant. After being sentenced it was then presented to the defendant to sign. Not wanting to sign the bill of information because of the new information added that he was not made aware of durng the plea agreement, the defendant, was told by his attorney to sign or pull 40years instead of 4. The defendant did sign on hi way out of the court room as he was allowed to go home and report the followin day to start his sentence but he did not sign within the desinated area. Sometime after someone drew a line from the blank signature line to where the defendant did sign. My question is would this be considered ineffective assistance of counsel? If not, would the fact that the attorney did nothng on his clients behalf for the entire 2years they waited for a court date and that the attorney did not interview one wittness, including the one interviewd by the state that stated he was almost sure he was with the defendant on the night in question and all he needed was to look at the defendants work schedule to be sure. The attorney was aware of this interview however the defendant was not. Would this be grounds for ineffective assistance of counsel?

By: W. David White

W. David White — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:46:09 +0000

No, no, no. Been in practice 31 years and I believe this is a terrible idea. We should adopt the ABA standard to protect our clients. We all know ineffective claims are coming when we represent those are convicted of serious offenses. We promise as attorney’s to protect our clients confidences.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:58:54 +0000

I was reading this about the ineffective assistance of counsel and I am curious how the laws read when a client was under the influence during the signing of a plea and the attorney asked the client to not disclose about the substance that had been taken that day. Is that legal?