As a three-time ex-felon, I have some experience with criminal defense attorneys. My rule of thumb has been one wants a multi-story courthouse, because attorneys only look at one's file on the ride up in the elevator. If one is on the first floor, they never even look at the file. By the eighth floor, they might know your name and the actual charges. I suppose if the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) were a courthouse, one might get a decent defense. In my last case, both of the attorneys I hired (and later fired) didn't bother to pick up the evidence we needed to refute from the DA. They both "hadn't gotten around" to subpoenaing the one person who could explain my innocence (one kept "forgetting" and the other decided she wasn't very friendly -- she wasn't keen on testifying, granted, but she would have testified truthfully and helped me greatly). Courts hold criminal defense attorneys to such a low standard, they can be drunk, asleep, or even completely untrained and still provide a sufficient defense according to the courts. Attorneys don't have any incentive to dig deep into a case and provide a rigorous defense. Doing so would take time and effort. They do have an incentive to take on as many cases as possible, do as little work as possible, and hang their clients out to dry. One can't look up a win/loss record on these people and the Bar doesn't make the data available. Despite what you learn in school, our legal system is designed to convict all who appear before it. Juries are told to believe witnesses who are clearly lying, police are taught how to lie on the stand to hide problems, and the attorneys don't have any reason to do anything to help. All the great so-called protections are undone in actual implementation. My solution: I start law school on Monday. I will be a criminal defense attorney in four years. I have a comfortable income now and can take just a few cases. I plan to do everything possible to defend my clients. My sole goal in life, I am now 52, is to walk into a court room and have the judge and ADA mutter to themselves, "Oh, dear God, not him." My life will then be complete.

your story is pretty awesome. I don't know the background on your crimes and I really don't care. As far as I and the Constitution are concerned, you've evened whatever score you had. The system is screwed up. Even little things hold you up.

I checked out a video tape back in 2000. Then I got deployment paperwork that month. years later, I got off active duty and applied for jobs. it took 6 months, but i finally found a great job. guess what happened when I went for my first background check... I'd been tried and convicted in abstentia for petty larceny, $22 or less. a friggin video tape is haunting me even 9 years later. I was (currently am) a soldier in the US Army - had the court even attempted to punch in my social security number into a DB, they'd have found me in downtown Sand City. I would have EXCITED to hop on a plane to SC and face trial for that tape - it was better than getting homemade grenades tossed into my truck.

That video tape I lost while packing up to deploy has cost me $2500 to the courts and just as much in lawyer fees. It's been 2 years, i thought it was done, but I changed Army jobs to one that needed a higher level security clearance. guess what? I'm currently in hold status because of a petty larceny conviction that came down back in 2002.

It never ends.

As a prosecutor my desire was to always square off against an attorney committed to a strong defense. A fear of or constance avoidance of trial in favor of plea deals for financial motives or otherwise, definitely works against the interest of defendants. Even the best defense attorneys, however, are likely to have losing trial averages (likewise the laziest prosecutors I've known have winning averages) because in the vast majority of cases the underlying facts, not the argument or presentation, determine the outcome. Someday, I hope it is every case.

And while I sincerely commend you on choosing a law-abiding path, and one which will undoubtedly enable you to help many people (assuming the bar's character and fitness requirements don't prevent your admission), you used a peet-peeve phrase of mine. The passage of time or the completion of a sentence doesn't change one from a felon to an ex-felon. Only exoneration can do that.

What does your conviction of a low level, fine-only misdemeanor for a theft you admit you committed have to do with the failings of the judicial system? Take some responsibility for your actions instead of complaining about the system.

Skipping court on a case that is so minor (traffic tickets and offenses like yours with no possible jail time) that it doesn't even fall under the constitution's requirement of court-appointed counsel, is hardly in the same league as the wide-spread injustice described in the article. I'm glad the military is at least checking into any crime of moral turpitude on applicant's record (however petty) before granting clearance.

The fees you refer to are likely transcript and expunction/appellate attorney's fees, a good reminder to others not to ignore problems lest they snowball.