What is the test for automatic reversal for violations of the right to effective assistance of counsel?

The rule of automatic reversal for violations of the right to effective assistance of counsel is in no sense inconsistent with the requirement that prejudice be shown before other kinds of errors that are challenged for the first time on appeal or by collateral attack can warrant reversal. The plain error doctrine and Wainwright v. Sykes (1977) 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594, are both premised on the concept that defendants waive their right to complain about certain kinds of errors by not challenging them in the trial court. Defendants who are competently defended thus may be deemed to have waived claims which their counsel for tactical reasons decided not to raise below. But claims that were never raised because of counsel's incompetence cannot be presumed to have been waived, as courts have recognized. ¹⁴ Otherwise, lawyers would be able to waive claims of their own incompetence. ¹⁵ Because claims of incompetent counsel are not

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