California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Snow, 132 Cal.Rptr.2d 271, 30 Cal.4th 43, 65 P.3d 749 (Cal. 2003):
Defendant cites Little v. Superior Court (1980) 110 Cal.App.3d 667, 168 Cal.Rptr. 72 for the proposition that a trial court may not lawfully require counsel to proceed to trial unprepared. In Little, the deputy public defender assigned to represent the defendant was unable to appear at the preliminary hearing because of a calendaring error. (Id. at p. 670, 168 Cal.Rptr. 72.) A supervising deputy appeared, explained the problem, and moved for a continuance. The prosecutor, who had witnesses summoned for that date, objected, and the court denied the continuance despite the supervisor's representation that he had never talked to the defendant and was completely unfamiliar with the case. (Ibid. Little) is obviously not on point; defendant here began trial with two attorneys, one of whom had defended him before on the same charges and had been reappointed more than two years earlier, the other of whom had been appointed four months earlier.
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