Momentum for a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases

Low-income clients’ unmet legal needs in civil cases are growing. Many clients who face severe legal consequences can neither afford private lawyers nor obtain counsel from legal aid programs stretched far too thin. They lose parental rights to their children. They lose their homes. They cannot access essential health care. While defendants who face incarceration in criminal cases have a constitutional right to counsel, at public expense if necessary, parties to civil cases have no comparable right, no matter how potentially devastating the outcome.

To demolish this monumental barrier to justice, a burgeoning national coalition of poverty law advocates is developing state-level strategies to achieve a right to publicly funded counsel for low-income people in civil cases. The right is otherwise known as “civil Gideon,” after Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1963, found a constitutional right to counsel for criminal defendants.

The entire July-August 2006 issue of Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy will cover this topic. The special issue will have articles examining efforts in several states and Canada to recognize the right to counsel, a survey of state statutes guaranteeing counsel, and an analysis of the status of the right under federal law 25 years after the Supreme Court found no blanket right to counsel in any civil case. The special issue will also consider the right to civil counsel under international law and explore lessons from the defender side of implementing the right to counsel in criminal cases.

Michael Greco, the American Bar Association (ABA) President resident who has been voicing the need for more available counsel for low-income people, will introduce the special issue. At its annual meeting in August the ABA will consider a resolution to support appointed counsel at public expense for low-income people in cases where basic human needs are at stake.

For information on obtaining a copy of the special issue, contact Ilze Hirsh, Clearinghouse Review editor.