“I do not have a lawyer.”

Excerpt from Michael, a defendant at the Hall of Justice in winter 2022.

Michael: I do not have a lawyer. 

Interviewer: You said that you've also you said that you've been in the system for eight or nine months. So, have you been defending yourself? 

Michael: I've been defending—no, the initial thing was for me to get a lawyer. So, I initially talked to a whole bunch of lawyers. I probably talked to, you know, 20 if not 30 or so lawyers. And the way they have treated me, and, you know, is the reason why I did not hire a lawyer in the first place. 

Interviewer: OK. 

Michael: So uh you know, just, the attitudes, you know. It's almost like, you know, “Hey, you give me your money, and I tell you nothing about how I'm going to proceed with this. I'll just tell you what to do.” Right?   

Interviewer: Mhm. 

Michael: So it's, it's, it’s kind of how it felt like they were expecting. I'll just give you a, you know, a lump sum of money, and I'm not sure what they're doing in the backgrounds—talking to people, which they may have connections with, and just say, “Look, you know, uh you go through this diversion, maybe you pay this money” or however it goes, right. Of course, the more money you have, the better, right? If they know you have money, then of course they’re going to milk every ounce of money that you have. So that’s part of what the problem was—was trying to get somebody who you could feel would actually work for your defense. And none of them did, so none of them were hired.