This raises some very interesting philosophical and Constitutional questions. Criminals have the right to an attorney, but what does that right imply? The right to competent counsel who have the will, ability, and time to offer a cogent defense, I'd say. And our system is failing in that regard.

Because an estimated 80 percent of felony defendants in large states are too poor to hire their own lawyers, and because the case is being watched around the nation, the case has the potential to alter the shape of the criminal justice system.

Filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the lawsuit is a broad challenge to a patchwork system that has been described by decades of studies and commissions as dysfunctional, underfinanced and "in crisis," with often poorly trained and poorly supervised lawyers handling huge caseloads. It says indigent clients have been failed by their appointed lawyers all around the state...

In one filing, the state argues that by appointing lawyers it fulfills its constitutional obligations. "It cannot be seriously contended that plaintiffs have been denied the right to counsel," the state says. The state's defender system includes Legal Aid Societies, private lawyers who are appointed by the courts, and local public defender offices.