Some courts have recognized that ineffective assistance also can be raised on direct appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Note that claiming ineffective assistance of counsel means that you give up some of your attorney-client confidentiality privileges with that attorney.For a guilty verdict in a criminal trial. The best advice is for the client to stop playing attorney, stop deciding on evidence and let his attorney do his job. Claims of ineffective assistance run the full gamut of representation from the investigative stages through the appeal, if there is one. The Court of Appeals held that counsel's representation, when viewed as a whole, did not constitute ineffective assistance. For a guilty verdict in a criminal trial. 2d 623, 628 (1987) (holding that a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel must be filed "in the appellate tribunal which considered the primary appeal."). States Supreme Court has described a "reasonable probability" as a "probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Every defendant in the United States has a right to an effective attorney when they are facing criminal charges or appealing their case.