Should I hire a private attorney or use the public defender in Colorado?

The short answer - if you qualify for the public defender you almost certainly should use the services of the public defender. The reality is that if you qualify for the public defender you have access to extremely talented, dedicated, and skilled lawyers, for free. Frankly if you qualify for court appointed representation you will likely get better representation than you would paying a private lawyer a small amount to defend you.

In Colorado, there are essentially three different types of "public defender" attorneys that you can qualify for. Which one you are assigned will depend on your exact circumstances. For most state level criminal charges, the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender is the default agency that is assigned to defend people who qualify for the public defender. If you are charged in the Denver or Aurora municipal courts there are separate public defender agencies that are assigned to defend people in those courts. If any of these three agencies have a legal conflict in a case (for instance if the same office already represents a witness in the case) than the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (a separate agency) assigns a lawyer to defend.

Despite the exact agency, rest assured that the lawyers who do public defense care very deeply, work very hard, and are some of the most skilled criminal defense lawyers in Colorado.

On the other hand, if you do not qualify for public defender representation, it is extremely important that you consider the lawyer you hire carefully. And you should hire a lawyer (and not represent yourself).

You should seek out a lawyer who has significant trial experience and knows how to fight. You should seek out a lawyer with a reputation of strong Colorado criminal defense.