No. Our law firm complies with the same standards as the private defense bar. Staff attorneys must have obtained at least an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree in law.

Every attorney is a licensed member in good standing of the Pennsylvania State Bar Association. All attorneys are required to continue their legal education by attending hearings and seminars on current and evolving legal issues.

In order to be appointed a Defender Association of Philadelphia Public Defender, you must first be arrested. 

After arrest, a pretrial services representative will conduct a telephone interview to determine financial eligibility. Once the pre-trial services interview has been completed, the person arrested will be scheduled for preliminary arraignment. During the arraignment, a Trial Commissioner will make a determination to either appoint the Public Defender or will instruct the person to hire private counsel. If the Public Defender cannot represent a person that is otherwise financially eligible due to a conflict of interest, the court will appoint counsel free of charge.

Persons in custody who are without counsel will automatically have the Defender Association appointed if more than two weeks have elapsed and the person still has not hired counsel. Prior to this two week time you may ask the Judge at your first court date to appoint the Public Defender. If you do not have a trial date within this two week period, you may call pretrial services to request appointment. Questions should be referred to (215) 683-3710.

If you hired private counsel for your preliminary hearing, your case has been held for court and you can no longer afford this attorney, you must have your request for counsel qualified by a Common Pleas Judge or Trial Commissioner. Pretrial services does not appoint counsel at the Common Pleas level. You can ask for the Defender Association to be appointed at your arraignment prior to trial in the Court of Common Pleas.

Interviews serve a two-fold purpose: 

•  As the beginning step for any investigation that needs to be done regarding your case.

It is essential that you come to our office for an interview as soon as possible after arrest. If you are in custody, an attorney from our office will be up to visit you. Staff attorneys conduct interviews at all of the prisons on a daily basis. Please keep in mind that investigations are often time sensitive. Interviews need to be conducted as close to the date of the arrest as possible.

We have an Investigations Department that interviews witnesses, obtains medical records and police radio calls, takes pictures of crime scenes and injuries and conducts all investigations necessary to prepare for trial.

• The second purpose for coming to our office for an interview is practical advice. You will be able to speak to an attorney and tell them what happened to you. Additionally, our attorneys can provide referrals for social services such as drug and alcohol treatment.

There are very serious consequences.

• A bench warrant would be issued.
• You could be arrested at any time.
• The bench warrant is entered into the statewide fugitive database and possibly the national fugitive database.

If you had been released by posting bail, you or your surety could lose that deposit and be responsible for payment of the full bail amount.

If you decide to surrender, you would held in custody until you have a hearing in Bench Warrant Court-typically that day. At the hearing, you would be represented by one of our attorneys. The court would hear your reason for failing to appear in court. If the court determines your reason for failing to appear in court is unacceptable, then you could be held in contempt.

If you are found guilty of contempt, you could be sentenced to up to 5 months and 29 days incarceration for the contempt charge alone. Also, the judge may significantly increase the bail amount on your open case or deny setting bail at all.

It is very important that you bring any proof with you about why you could not appear in court. For example, if you were in the hospital in emergency care, bring your medical records.

If you decide to surrender, you can do so in room B-04 at the Criminal Justice Center (The Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice) located at 1301 Filbert Street. To surrender, you could do so on weekdays between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

No. Once you are represented by any attorney, either appointed or retained, the public defender is ethically prohibited from speaking with you without your attorney’s permission.

There will often be times where the necessary witnesses to your case have failed to appear 2-3 times and you may wonder why no bench warrants are issued for them; but bench warrants would be issued for you if you failed to appear.

While the system is unbalanced in this respect, to protect your best interest, you should plan on showing up for court every time and on time. Receiving a bench warrant for failing to appear or showing up late gives the District Attorney’s office another chance to put on their case against you.

Cases are never dismissed at the first listing by the Commonwealth. Cases are usually dismissed after 3 times, but some may be continued even longer than that. Again, the best way to protect your interests is to show up to court on time and appropriately dressed.

We specialize in handling criminal cases occurring within the county of Philadelphia.

This does not include:

• Summary citations
• Traffic tickets
• Protection from abuse orders
• Matters of child custody and support.

In order to find out who will be representing you, please note the next court date and court room from your subpoena.

You can call our main number at (215) 568-3190. Provide the operator with your court date and court room and they will transfer you to the attorney that will handle your case.

Appointment of counsel interviews are conducted at Pretrial Service Division main office, 1401 Arch Street, 5th floor, Monday – Friday, between 8 AM – 4 PM.

You will be required to bring paperwork that proves inability to pay. Questions should be referred to (215) 683-3710. If you show up without any verification of your indigence, you will likely be asked to come back with proper verification.

If you are employed: You MUST bring verification of your income. Please bring the most recent copy of your pay stub.

If you are unemployed: Pretrial services is looking to verify how you support yourself.

If you are supported by a family member or a friend: Please bring a notarized letter of support from that person.

If you have recently lost your job: Please bring the letter of termination.

If you support children under 18 years old: Please bring social security, birth certificate information and any verification of child support.

Other helpful documents: Public Assistance letters and SSI disability information are also ways to verify your financial status.

Self-employed or under the table employment generally disqualifies that person from consideration because there is no way to verify income.

You can call: Criminal Listings department at the Criminal Justice Center at (215) 683-7297

You can visit in person: 2nd floor of the Criminal Justice Center; go to the Criminal Listings desk.

Please Note: You will have to wait in line and go through the metal detectors to get to the 2nd floor

You can can go online: Criminal Court Listing System on the FJD Website at http://courts.phila.gov

• Go to search court records at the top pf the page
• Click on search trial division-criminal hearing list
• Click on search calendar by defendant’s name
• Enter your last name, first name then click search
• Click on the link for the docket number of your case (if you have multiple cases, click on all of the cases to check)
• In the docket, the calendar of events lists your next court date

You should plan on arriving at the Criminal Justice Center at least 45 minutes prior to the time listed on your subpoena.

When you arrive at the CJC, you will have to go through the metal detectors and make your way up to your court room. You should not expect, in the morning especially, to be able to do all of this within a few minutes of arriving at the court house.

You should wear clothes that show respect for the court and show that you are taking your case seriously.

While you will still be allowed in the court room if you are dressed more casually, please remember you may not receive the same level of respect and consideration as an appropriately dressed person would receive.

You should never wear anything that glorifies crime or violence. Clothing that references guns, drugs or gangs are never appropriate. Additionally, you should refrain from wearing clothing that is tight-fitting, too short or revealing; err on the side of dressing conservatively.

No. Never talk about your case over the prison phones. Prison phone calls are recorded.

The District Attorney’s office listens to prison phone call recordings. Anything you say about your case (or anything else that could make you look bad) over the prison phones could harm your case.

Only talk to your Public Defender about your case.