"In Pursuit of Meaningful Civil Representation: Advocacy Strategy Propo" by Sophia T. Slater

"In Pursuit of Meaningful Civil Representation: Advocacy Strategy Propo" by Sophia T. Slater: 

Fordham Urban Law Journal

By Sophia T. Slater, Published on 04/01/24

INTRODUCTION “If we had had representation at the beginning, the eviction probably would not have happened.”1 Cristina Quiñones-Betancourt, a nonprofit attorney from the organization Mobilization for Justice, made this remark about a client who had been evicted after missing rent payments and was seeking to get back his apartment.2 Although Quiñones-Betancourt had a legal argument that her client’s Section 8 housing voucher should have counted toward the outstanding rent, an evicted person with a nonprofit legal attorney bearing an unmanageable caseload has an uphill battle squaring off with a well-represented landlord.3 The Legal Aid Society’s Chief Attorney of the Civil Practice, Adriene Holder, said the mechanism of legal aid is “extremely successful” when implemented, but explained the organization is “still turning away thousands of people because of the lack of capacity.”4 This situation in housing court is just one consequence of the general lack of a right to counsel for civil cases in the United States, which is producing progressively more dire outcomes. The impact of this lack of civil counsel is particularly disparate for those facing financial and racial barriers to legal assistance.5

 IN PURSUIT OF MEANINGFUL CIVIL REPRESENTATION: ADVOCACY STRATEGY PROPOSALS FOR AN INTEGRATED CIVIL GIDEON AND LEGAL EMPOWERMENT APPROACH Sophia T. Slater* Introduction ....................................................................................1274 

I. Factual Background .................................................................1276 

A. The Access to Civil Justice Crisis................................1276 

B. The Civil Right to Counsel (Or Lack Thereof) ............1277 

II. Existing Approaches ................................................................1278 

A. The Civil Gideon Approach .........................................1279 

B. The Legal Empowerment Approach ............................1281 

1. Upsolve, Inc. et al. v. James ...................................1282 2

. The Discriminatory Nature of Professional Regulation in the Practice of Law...........................1284 

III. Proposed Advocacy Strategies.................................................1286 

A. Litigation Strategy for a Civil Right to Counsel Based on the Right to a Jury Trial for Deportable Offenses...1286

 1. The Legal Standard of a Sufficiently Severe Penalty ....................................................................1287 2. Padilla v. Kentucky.................................................1289 

3. Right to a Jury Trial in Proceedings for Deportable Offenses..................................................................1290

i. Bado v. United States.......................................1291 

ii. People v. Suazo ................................................1293 

4. Applications to a Civil Right to Counsel................1295 

B. Gun Violence Intervention Program as a Model for Legal Empowerment Initiatives..............................................1296 

1. The Jacobi Medical Center’s SUV Program...........1297 

2. Applications to a Legal Empowerment Initiative ...1299 C. Why Both Approaches Must be Implemented Together........................................................................1302 Conclusion......................................................................................1303