Under the Sixth Amendment the defendant in an adversarial criminal proceeding has right to counsel in view of the complexities of law and material deprivations that a criminal conviction can result in. This right arises only when the government has filed formal charges and not before. The Supreme Court has held that denial of counsel at critical stages of the trial amounts to deprivation of constitutional rights of the defendant for which alone any conviction is liable to be reversed.
Defendants enjoy and can assert this right only at ‘critical stages’ of the proceedings. Such critical stages in criminal proceedings include jury selection, trial, sentencing etc. Even pre trial hearings on issues related to sustainability of the prosecution case, bail or suppression of evidence are critical stages of the proceedings.
Under the Sixth Amendment an indigent defendant has a right to a court appointed lawyer, who should be competent and effective with undivided loyalty.
At the instance of the defendant or in his interest, the court can replace an attorney. However, the court will not entertain any such request for substitution of attorney when it comes too late in the proceedings or is designed to delay matters.
