Every year, millions try to navigate US courts without a lawyer

[Disir]

Judge Richard A. Posner, a legendary judicial figure, retired abruptly earlier this month to make a point: People without lawyers are mistreated in the American legal system.

In one of his final opinions as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, he expressed frustration at the dismissal of one self-represented litigant’s lawsuit, writing that the prisoner, Michael Davis, “needs help – needs it bad – needs a lawyer desperately.”

Unfortunately, Davis’s circumstances are far from unique. Many lower-income people have no lawyer to help them navigate the legal system, either in civil or criminal cases.

Eighty percent of state criminal defendants cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, and only those who are actually incarcerated are constitutionally entitled to appointed counsel. Many people facing misdemeanor charges can, if convicted, be subjected to significant fines and fees, or face the loss of benefits (including housing) or deportation. Yet, they have no right to an attorney, and those who cannot afford a lawyer will go without one.

Unlike in the criminal context, there’s no federal constitutional right to counsel in civil cases. Civil cases can involve a range of critical issues, including housing, public benefits, child custody and domestic violence. And while some civil litigants may be entitled to counsel in certain jurisdictions, in most of these cases, people who cannot afford a lawyer will be forced to go it alone. Doing so may mean that they fail to make it through the process, have their case dismissed or lose what otherwise would have been a winning case.

As directors of the Center for Access to Justice at Georgia State University College of Law, we agree with Judge Posner. People like Michael Davis desperately need help. Without legal assistance, their issues will likely be unresolved or, worse, wrongly resolved against them.

.....The Legal Services Corporation, the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation, reported in June that 86 percent of low-income Americans receive inadequate or no professional legal help for the civil legal problems they face. Here in Georgia, state courts heard more than 800,000 cases involving self-represented litigants in 2016 alone.
Every year, millions try to navigate US courts without a lawyer

You really can't navigate the system solo.

 

[dfens]

Maybe lawyers are tired of defending criminal blacks all the time, and have fled for greener pastures in other areas of law.

I know for a fact this has happened in healthcare, doctors and nurses are fed up.

 

[Shrimpbox]

Here's a good example for you D. One of my employees, who does have stupid written on his forehead and is a frequent guest of local law enforcement for the dumbest of behavior, and is in his fifties. Well let's start again. Bobby was sleeping alone in his bed on his property in his apartment when his sometime girlfriend barges in, covers him in watermelons and cantaloupes, and starts wailing on him. True to bobby, he wipes the sleep out of his eyes and walks out in his yard and proceeds to put a beat,down on her. Bobbys mother, 70, comes out and try's to pull bobby off but in the scuffle bobby rears back to throw a punch and knocks momma down. Long story short, the girls haul ass, pass the cops on the way out, and the cops arrest bobby. Get this, HE is charged with elderly abuse even though momma has told the cops repeatedly that there was no abuse. I told bobby, get a lawyer for this one cause they don't have a leg to stand on. They didn't even question the two gals. But the cops constantly have it in for bobby. He wouldn't listen. Relied on the public pretender, and is now on probation for the misdemeanor of disturbing the peace meaning he has to pay money every month, pay for a anger management class, and do some community service. He was the one attacked.

Some of these people D I believe are so used to the system they really have no urgency to fight it even when it is important. The public defender is free even if he or she is a joke. What the police did in bobbys case is tell him he could accept the lesser charge or they would take it to trial and if he was found guilty because of his past run ins he would go to prison for a number of years. The justice system is certainly overwhelmed but there is an accompanying thread here. Many of the defendants are too lazy or too intimidated or even too sorry to fight for themselves. You need role models and mentors to breed a sense of self confidence in the lower class, and in today's culture, they are just not there.

 

[Disir]

That is a crazy story from the get go. But, I don't think the police told him to accept the lesser charge. That's an attorney/DA thang. Were the watermelons and cantaloupes whole or chopped up? That's so wacky.

 

[Shrimpbox]

They were pieces but he and his associates are so dysfunctional.he is not a bad or violent guy buts get caught doing stupid stuff like drinking a beer while fishing in his John boat or stays hanging with a girl that destroys $1200 dollars worth of tv and electronics while he is out fishing. On top of that he gets treated much differently by law enforcement than other people. There really is a two tiered justice system.