States seek to provide lawyers for the poor in civil cases

Several cases of poor defendants representing themselves often ineffectively in court triggered a push in legislatures to expand people's rights to free lawyers in certain civil proceedings.

According to Norwich Bulletin, more than two dozen bills are being considered in 18 states this year that would be beneficial to citizens through providing public defenders or private lawyers to the poor. John Pollock, a lawyer from Public Justice Center, said  "When your basic human needs are at stake, you should have a lawyer to protect those needs."

There is a flood of low-income people who represent themselves in court which usually involves eviction, foreclosure, child custody and involuntary commitment issues. The spike is attributed to the Great Recession in which bankruptcy cases and debt collection didn't only increase but also became an obstacle for people to hire legal counsels.

Some of the 18 states that are considering this new legal bills are reported by ABC News. In Florida, the House and Senate have approved a bill involving the lawyers of state's Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel to represent individuals facing involuntary outpatient treatment for substance abuse.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, they've approved the legislation that would allow mentally ill persons to acquire free services of a lawyer. Kentucky is also considering to appoint free lawyers for indigent parents.

Massachusetts, on the other hand, has allowed lawmakers to consider requiring free legal counsel to poor people with eviction cases as written by Yahoo. Moreover, Mississippi debated on allowing courts to provide indigent people with lawyers regarding their parental rights. Some of the states that will follow the same track are New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

State Senate President Martin Looney has proposed the bill, citing the previous case of a Connecticut woman, Adrianne Oyola. The woman was rejected by a judge for restraining order after she represented herself on court. The judge's call proved to be malevolence as the father threw the child on to a bridge, then jumped off. 

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states, United States of America, free lawyers, lawyers, civil cases, martin looney, Great Recession, george, Florida, Kentucky

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