Court Opinion

ID: 9766790
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:59:26.658455+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:26.117001
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Presiding Judge
(concurring in result).
While I agree with the result reached under the facts of this case, I am unable to agree with the test used by some of the authorities cited on the subject of the standards by which we judge ineffective assistance of counsel. We see a good many claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in post-conviction motions. I continue to have grave doubts about the usefulness of the so-called “farce and mockery” test and believe it offers little, if any, guide to the practicing lawyer who is appointed to represent an indigent defendant. “Farce and mockery” are so extreme and so rare that they may mislead a lawyer into believing the court intends to set some lower standard for representing indigents than it does other litigants. As has been said many times, appointed counsel is required to *648exercise the same care as he would if he were being paid. He should be aware that he is expected to exercise the skill and knowledge which normally prevails at the time and place. Professional competence is expected, and reasonably so, by the public, in any profession. I do not know of any other profession where professional competence is judged on the basis of whether the professional conduct has reduced the procedure or effort involved to a “mockery or farce” of what it should have been. I do not believe any such loose or extreme standard should be applied to the legal profession, either, and this is especially so in the area of pre-trial preparation. “Mockery and farce” does not fit an analysis of whether a lawyer has used normal competence in getting • ready for trial. If all that lawyers are required to do for the clients is to bestir themselves to the point that what happens is not a “mockery or farce”, then our standards are much lower than we realize. I do not believe they are that low and would be in favor of eliminating “mockery or farce” as worthy of being a test of ineffective assistance of counsel.