Columbia County, FL Public Defender’s Office

The Columbia County Public Defender's Office is located in Lake City, Florida. With one division chief, three felony attorneys, one Juvenile attorney, one misdemeanor attorney, one capital homicides attorney and one attorney specializing in Baker Acts and Jimmy Ryce cases, this office serves the throughout the Columbia county. The Office protects the constitutional and statutory rights of all citizens through the effective legal representation of court appointed clients, pursuant to Florida Statutes. The goal of the office is to provide quality representation to all appointees. They believe that "quality representation" cannot be defined or measured in wins and loses, this program is not necessarily conducive to performance measurement. The measures that have been developed by the Public Defender’s Office are rather designed to determine the quality of work in other ways, that is frequency of client contact, time of case resolution, and attorney experience. The office comprises a five-member board elected to represent the citizens of Columbia County. Each member represents a district and is elected by the residents of the district. For more information on the services of the Columbia County Public Defender's Office, please contact them directly.