You can set Default attribute in Model also>
protected $attributes = [
'status' => self::STATUS_UNCONFIRMED,
'role_id' => self::ROLE_PUBLISHER,
];
You can find the details in these links
1.) How to set a default attribute value for a Laravel / Eloquent model?
2.) https://laracasts.com/index.php/discuss/channels/eloquent/eloquent-help-generating-attribute-values-before-creating-record
You can also Use Accessors & Mutators for this
You can find the details in the Laravel documentation
1.) https://laravel.com/docs/4.2/eloquent#accessors-and-mutators
2.) https://scotch.io/tutorials/automatically-format-laravel-database-fields-with-accessors-and-mutators
3.) Universal accessors and mutators in Laravel 4