public defender

noun

1. a lawyer appointed or elected by a city or county as a full-time, official defender to represent indigents in criminal cases at public expense.

public defender

noun

1. (in the US) a lawyer engaged at public expense to represent indigent defendants

public defender

1. An attorney who is appointed and paid by a court to defend poor persons who cannot afford a lawyer.

Word History and Origins

Origin of public defender¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Neither he nor his public defender, Ayah Sarsour, would comment after, but in the hallways, he could be heard talking to his family about how nervous he was in court.

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County alternate public defender’s office, which represented Nowden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Lawyers on what’s known as the Criminal Justice Act panel — who step in when federal public defenders have conflicts — are paid from funds appropriated by Congress to the Judicial Branch’s Defender Services program.

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Gabriela Rivera, Parias’s federal public defender, rejected that claim, arguing that officers “permitted him to go to the hospital” and “had the opportunity and ability to follow up.”

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Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the total number of people killed at 132.

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