Comprehensive paper explores status, future of civil right to counsel

NCCRC participant Tonya Brito has written an extensive paper, What We Know and Need to Know About Civil Gideon, at the behest of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services.  From the summary:

This Paper examines what we know and need to know about Civil Gideon. On the “what we know” front, the Paper examines Supreme Court jurisprudence addressing claims for a constitutional due process right to counsel in civil cases, existing state laws providing a right to counsel in civil cases, and current efforts and state legislation to expand the civil right to counsel.  Addressing “what we need to know,” the Paper examines empirical research on the efficacy of legal representation in civil cases, the take up rate for appointed counsel in Civil Gideon jurisdictions, the costs of Civil Gideon both to the public and to civil litigants who utilize appointed counsel, and the administration of Civil Gideon.

The paper relies on data collected on the NCCRC website about the existing status of right to counsel in the 50 states.