Access to Justice
About the Project
In 2006, the American Bar Association resolved to urge "federal, state and territorial governments to provide legal counsel as a matter of right at public expense to low income persons in those categories of adversarial proceedings where basic human needs are at stake, such as those involving shelter, sustenance, safety, health or child custody, as determined by each jurisdiction." The ABA thereby firmly placed the issue of access to counsel in civil cases on both the bar's and nation's agendas.
Since this time the Section of Litigation has sought to advance access to justice. In 2008 we took the next step by creating a fellowship, for a legal services lawyer to work with the Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel at the Public Justice Center (“PJC”) in Baltimore, Maryland to coordinate right to justice initiatives nationally.
The Section also lead initiatives in the ABA House of Delegates to adopt the Model Access Act. To review the report visit http://www.abanet.org/leadership/2010/annual/pdfs/104.pdf .
- Report to the ABA House of Delegates on Resolution 112A, Approved August 7, 2006
- "Documenting the Justice Gap in America" - Report issued by Legal Services Corporation in September 2005
- "No House, No Child Custody, No Money, No Lawyer" - Article by Bob Rothman from Litigation Magazine
- "Gideon's New Trumpet: Expanding the Civil Right to Counsel in Massachusetts" - Report issued by Boston Bar Association in September, 2008
- "Access to Justice: Is Civil Gideon a Piece of the Puzzle?" - Article by Robert J. Derocher from Bar Leader in July-August 2008 Issue
