Posted on 10/27/2009 6:16:02 AM PDT by reaganaut1
A new California law that gives poor residents the right to an attorney in civil matters such as child custody and foreclosure is being hailed as a model that could transform the nation's legal landscape. But critics argue that the law will result in a wave of case backlogs and could further burden court budgets.
The law, signed this month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, assures the poor legal counsel in an array of civil cases. Advocates for the change say poor people often wind up in court facing life-changing consequences -- such as eviction -- but go through the process without adequate legal advice. That can lead to mistakes and delays.
The movement to mandate legal representation for the poor in civil cases, known as "civil Gideon" -- named after the Supreme Court case more than 40 years ago that required government-provided lawyers for criminal defendants -- has been gaining support in recent years. In 2006, the American Bar Association issued a statement backing civil Gideon.
...
Ted Frank, a Washington lawyer who has written about civil Gideon for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said he believes the new law will result in more waste in the court system.
Parents fighting over child custody, for example, will be less inclined to work out an agreement on their own and more apt to fight in court because of access to free legal services, he said.
Mr. Frank said he believes landlords will have a harder and more expensive time carrying out legitimate evictions, which may cause rents to rise.
"What is clear is that you will never have a simple eviction because every single one of them will be litigated," Mr. Frank said. "The rest of the poor will be worse off because that."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
More make-work for lawyers!
I think I should have legal representation in small claims court too!
Why can’t lawyers do what doctors do for the poor, that is, offer their services at free or low cost.
Gee, I guesss the eeeeeevil rich will have to pay more taxes for the lawyer welfare program
Actually lawyers do just that in many jurisdictions. Fees for court-appointed cases are typically much lower than market rate. And I know of at least one jurisdiction (Jackson County, MO) that assigns idigent clients to resident attorneys for no fees. I don't know how much good this really does the clients, since it's not unusual for, say, a tax lawyer, to get a termination of parental rights case assigned to him. It's kind of like asking a psychiatrist to do surgery.
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