HOW ABOUT THE PUBLIC DEFENDER ?
Most people who are accused of a crime end-up being represented by the public defender or other court-appointed lawyer. Some public defender offices are huge -- larger than any private law firm you are likely to encounter -- while others are small.
Some of those offices are excellent. Some are not so good. Good or bad, they are a necessity and serve a purpose -- providing basic legal counsel and representation to people who cannot afford a private lawyer and who, otherwise, would have no legal advise or representation at all!
Over the years I have met a number of public defenders who were brilliant criminal lawyers, excellent trial lawyers and whose hearts were in the right place. I have immense respect for those individuals.
Generally, the problems with public defender offices are, not lack of professional experience or technical competence but, those of under-funding, under-staffing and over-work. Those problems can produce a lot of frustration, burn-out and turn-over of personnel.
In the last analysis, how well you, as an individual, fare with a public defender probably depends upon the individual defender you are assigned. There are some that I would entrust with my life too and some that I would not.
The bottom line, of course, is that generally you are subject to the "luck of the draw". It's sort of like marrying a blind date. You get who you get, for better or worse, but, in this instance, you also have to share that person with lots of others.
Public defenders are provided free, or at a reduced cost, to those who financially qualify and free ain't bad -- especially if you don't have any money -- but there are "trade-offs"; things that you generally do not get, and cannot expect to get, for free.
Generally you're not going to get to pick your lawyer, have the same access to him, or her, or receive the degree of personal attention from him, or her, that you would want, or expect, from a private lawyer. That's not a put-down of public defenders; that's just a cold hard fact of life.