Thursday, May 15, 2003

Fourth Circuit rejects appeal of defendant who claims both that he should have been allowed to try the case himself and that his lawyer was bad

In U.S. v. Eady, the Fourth Circuit in a per curiam opinion for the panel of Judge Luttig and Motz and Senior Judge Hamilton reject the appellant's laundry list of issues which include both the claim that the trial court erred in not allowing the defendant to try the case himself and that the defendant's lawyer provided ineffective assistance.

Somehow this reminds me of a case where I was hired by an insurer to represent a defendant in a civil case and the client also hired its own counsel to work with me and after the jury awarded much more than I (or the Court) thought was possible, I told my co-counsel that as much as I had enjoyed working with him, I could have lost the case that badly all by myself.

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