Buckley, if you live in the US, many law schools have low income criminal law clinics (most also have family and civil law). If accepted, you are assigned a student attorney who is supervised by a law professor who typically is an expert in the field (and consequently who is usually also very friendly with the judges). Unlike legal aid, you are treated as a priority, as the student attorney is graded on his or her performance. You might check it out if you don’t have an attorney yet.