Law Office of the Public Defender for San Joaquin County

I had to battle my father and step-​mother as they wanted to terminate my parental rights to my daughter that i granted them guardianship to a few months before that. I remember when «i got served» I was so upset because i didnt know how i was going to come up with the money to get an attorney to fight them and I went to the court date to ask the judge if i could have more time to come up with the money for an attorney. Long story short i was referred by the judge to the office which was a surprise to me becuase i had no idea the public defenders office even provided service in family court cases.
I initially was intimidated because i thought my free public defender wont be much help and id be just as well off not even going to court.
I WAS WRONG!
My public defender called me, got information from me over phone, asked if I could provide witnesses and i was to uncomfortable to ask my roomate so he offered to ask for me i told him id talk with my roomate about it but by the time i got home from meeting with him he had already called my roomate and talked him into it. I would have never even asked and lied to the lawyer about asking and not had a witness.
My parents either
A: had no case from the beginning and had no business trying to terminate my parental rights
or
B: My public Defender kicked her butt in the courtroom. He had my witness tell the judge about holidays, birthdays, locations he dropped me off at every weekend to spend time with my daughter, the specific presents the witness helped me wrap for the specific events, etc
During cross-​examination my parents attorney asked my witness which day was my daughters birthday, when he said the correct date i looked at my parents and there heads just dropped then the judge who was looking at her papers to check if he was right and saw the judge smile. there attorney said she had no further questions my PUBLIC DEFENDER whispered in my ear, «I’m confident you have nothing to worry about, good thing i made sure he knew the date when i talked to him on the phone» He was right the judge did not terminate my parental rights and in the letter she wrote she even recommended i terminate the guardianship i signed over to them to avoid it happening again in the future. My public defender wrote me letting me know he would like to do the same for free as well.
I will update this post with the name of my public defender but yea if felt great having my free attorney kick my rich dads paid attorneys butt! I FELT I RECIEVED BETTER SERVICE FROM MY PUBLIC DEFENDER THAN THEY DID FROM THERE ATTORNEY. As far as the time put into investigating or gathering information and the thought out questions he would ask my witness as well as preparing my witness knowing what questions she would ask. HE DID A BETTER JOB.

Disclosure: I volunteered in this office for one summer.
It’s a great place. I can’t really review their services as a client because I’ve never been an indigent accused criminal, but I can say that the majority of the attorneys here are very intelligent and dedicated to their peculiar form of public service.
If I had to be an indigent criminal accused in any county I hope it would be in San Joaquin County, because then I would enjoy my public defender.