FL: "not much... I don't already know"

The endless problem of big caseloads getting in the way of maintaining individual attorney-client relations, from Florida Today:

Cliatt denied a new attorney

For the second time this year, Judge Tonya Rainwater denied child molestation suspect Daniel Cliatt's motion to dismiss his public defender -- unless he wants to hire his own attorney...

... Cliatt... told Rainwater on Tuesday that he has spoken to his court-appointed public defender only four or five times in the past year. "It's not effective for my case, and I'm not taking part in my defense," he said. "I have asked him to file several motions and they haven't been filed yet. I haven't been kept abreast of anything."

Public Defender Michael Dwyer defended his work on the case but admitted he is besieged by cases. "My client is correct in that I have seen him only four or five times in the past year, but there is not much he can lend to his case that I don't already know," he said. "It's not lack of diligence or lack of vigilance on my part. I've had nine trials in the past three and a half months..."

Dwyer added that attorneys in his office are not clamoring to represent Cliatt. "Not many people are willing to take on a quick case in which there's 1,200 years in the balance for my client," he said...