HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A flood of poor defendants representing themselves – often ineffectively – in dire cases involving eviction, foreclosure, child custody and involuntary commitment has led to a push in legislatures to expand rights to free lawyers in certain civil proceedings.
Everyone has a right to a free lawyer in criminal cases if they can’t afford one. But the same right isn’t guaranteed in civil cases.
More than two dozen bills being considered in 18 states this year would provide either public defenders or private lawyers at state expense for low-income people in certain civil cases, according to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, which is run by the Public Justice Center nonprofit group in Baltimore.
“When your basic human needs are at stake, you should have a lawyer to protect those needs,” said John Pollock, a lawyer with the Public Justice Center who coordinates the national coalition. “The consequences are too great.”
The spike in self-represented defendants stems from the Great Recession, which not only created new waves of foreclosure, eviction, debt collection and bankruptcy cases, but also hindered people’s ability to pay for lawyers, judges and lawyers say. Such cases have overwhelmed and slowed court dockets, judges say.