Are all “appointed attorneys” employees of the Staten Island Legal Defense Services?
No. In some cases the Court will appoint attorneys who are not members of our office. This is generally only done after the Court determines that this office should not participate in your particular case. Usually this is done on the basis of what is known as a “conflict of interest”. There are many ways that this can come up, but usually it arises when more than one person who needs the assistance of an attorney is involved in the same situation. An attorney isn’t allowed to represent two people who may have conflicting interests in a situation. For this reason the court appoints separate lawyers from different offices.
