Don’t know where you are from but at least in 🦅 country you have a right to counsel. Thats works out to usually being assigned counsel (public defender) as soon as possible in the interest of justice. For a standard ticket you will probably have this settled within two court dates, your fees and other associated charges may not be so nice.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You only have that right when it’s a charge with a certain amount of weight, like prison time or a felony.
Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Any “Serious crime” which the SCOTUS delineated long ago as anything where you may face more than 6 months incarceration which lines up with just about anything.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Oh you’d be surprised what they’ve stuck under it. For example there’s a whole cottage industry in sending people to prison for being unable to pay debt. Said debt was incurred on a misdemeanor with no prison time so there was no lawyer and the debtor’s prison isn’t a trial so there’s still no lawyer.