If you have been charged with a serious crime such as Aggravated Rape of a Child, and have shopped for an attorney to represent you, you may have received price quotes ranging from $15,000-$50,000 for the legal fee.  Many of these quotes do not even cover the expense for forensic experts and/or private investigators, which are essential on most cases of this nature.  These additional expenses may make obtaining an adequate defense unrealistic and even impossible, even when family is willing to help, to some extent, pay for the legal services and/or experts.

The prosecutors have virtually unlimited resources to pay for experts and private investigators.  And yet many times a defendant, due to financial difficulties, cannot obtain necessary defense resources and, as a result, is not given a fair opportunity to present an adequate defense.

I have successfully persuaded judges that under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Article I, sections 7 and 12 of the Utah Constitution, as well as the Utah Indigent Defense Act and Rule 15(a) of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure, that a defendant, although represented by privately retained counsel, is still entitled to have the county and/or State provide funding to a Defendant so that he can obtain necessary experts in order to have a fair trial.

Some judges will disagree, however, believing that just because someone’s family has retained private counsel, they should not be entitled to county/state funding for experts.  These judges need to be corrected.  In such cases there is always an appeal process to a higher authority:  either the Utah Court of Appeals or Utah’s highest court, the Utah Supreme Court.

I have one such case where the trial judge did not believe that my client was entitled to funding for experts since his family had retained private counsel.  I respectfully disagreed and then appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.  They were convinced by my Petition to have them review the matter.  They asked all parties to submit briefs on the issues, and I just filed my Supreme Court brief on Tuesday.

We’ll keep you posted on the results. In the meantime, we can learn a few things: 1) defendant’s should not be denied necessary resources simply because they don’t have enough money for experts and/or private investigators, 2) judges are sometimes wrong, 3) prosecutors have a disadvantage in unlimited resources, and 4) there is an appeal process that should be utilized in order for justice and fundamental fairness to prevail.