Investigators, juries, judges, prosecutors and everyone else must understand that rape victims, immediately following assault, may not react with all of their normal faculties. When someone suffers a traumatic event, it may take a while for your head to clear and your heart rate to return to normal.

Child abuse laws in most states require people who know incident to report abuse to authorities. Teachers, doctors and police are usually required by law to report evidence of child abuse. A person violating these laws and failing to report sexual abuse of a child may also be liable to child for injuries suffered by child.

Many victims of sexual abuse do fully recover. This is not to suggest that they ever forget about what occurred, because they do not. However, they can, with help of family, friends, and professionals, go on with their lives and be happy again. And, it is very important that when a victim of sexual abuse comes forth and reports crime to family, friends, law enforcement, and others, that he or she be listened to in sincerest fashion possible.

Being freed from payment of your legal fees is not only advantage in hiring a public defender. With regards to a public defender’s capabilities, you can consider him as “perfect knights for justice” because he is very efficient at sizing up your case and presenting an acceptable plea bargain deal to prosecutor and judge. Additionally, he is updated on new laws and legal theories in his area of specialty. As a result, you may be done with criminal process and on with rest of your life sooner than if you were represented by a private attorney.

Regarding drawbacks, you have to know that a government-paid lawyer often has a huge overload of cases so he can’t devote a lot of time to a certain lawsuit. He also often lacks office equipment and adequate research access, and can’t afford to hire investigators to properly flesh out your case. As a result, you may have little or no access to your lawyer except during actual court hearings.

With all these, decision is still left for you to decide on if you’ll want a public defender to back you up in your case or not.