Our initial involvement with a case usually occurs at the time of arraignment, which means that the accused person is brought before a judge or magistrate and told what crime they have been charged with and the maximum possible penalty for the offense.
The Washtenaw County Office of Public Defender was established in 1971, as an integral part of county government, to provide mandated legal defense representation for indigent and partially indigent persons in criminal, civil contempt and juvenile matters, while serving as counterpart to state, county, city, village and township prosecutors throughout all courts in the county.
Although our criminal justice system is one of the best in the world today, it has deficiencies because imperfect human beings are the ones who must make it work.