Right To Counsel In Key Civil Cases Now Recognized In California; Levels Playing Field For Poor In Certain Housing, Other Litigation

In Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Times reports:

• California is embarking on an unprecedented civil court experiment to pay for attorneys to represent poor litigants who find themselves battling powerful adversaries in vital matters affecting their livelihoods and families. The program is the first in the nation to recognize a right to representation in key civil cases and provide it for people fighting eviction, loss of child custody, domestic abuse or neglect of the elderly or disabled. Advocates for the poor say the law, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week, levels the legal playing field and gives underprivileged litigants a better shot at attaining justice against unscrupulous landlords, abusive spouses, predatory lenders and other foes.(1)

For more, see California gives the poor a new legal right (Under a new law, the state will provide lawyers in key civil cases, such as those dealing with eviction and domestic abuse. Advocates say underprivileged litigants will get a better shot at justice).

(1) "How ironic that you can be arrested for stealing a small amount of food -- a box of Twinkies from a convenience store -- and you're entitled to counsel. But if your house is on the line, or your child is on the line, or you're being abused in a domestic relationship, you don't have the same right to counsel," said Assemblyman Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles Democrat who sponsored the bill.