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Public defenders

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Gideon's Servants And The Criminalization Of Poverty, Alexandra Natapoff Dec 2014

Gideon's Servants And The Criminalization Of Poverty, Alexandra Natapoff

Alexandra Natapoff

In ways that slip beneath the doctrinal radar, public defenders often behave like social workers. They find drug treatment and jobs for their clients, and intervene with landlords and employers. Conversely — and ironically — many civil welfare service providers act increasingly like law enforcement officials. Teachers call the police on their students, while welfare case workers often refer their clients for prosecution. This role-switching — by criminal lawyers and civil servants alike — is a function of the tight connection between criminalization and poverty: poor people tend to get swept up in the criminal system and such encounters tend …

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Full Legal Representation For The Poor: The Clash Between Lawyer Values And Client Worthiness, Michelle S. Jacobs Nov 2014

Full Legal Representation For The Poor: The Clash Between Lawyer Values And Client Worthiness, Michelle S. Jacobs

Michelle S Jacobs

This article seeks to expand the scope of our understanding of values and their connection to the work of poverty lawyers. The article explores the literature on poverty and moral worthiness. In order to bring clarity to the discussion, it examines social science research on defining "values" and detailing how they can affect behavior. Prof. Jacobs describes the reactions of clinical students to a classroom exercise, which asked them to describe the legal representation they would provide to hypothetical clients. This article describes how the link between students' values and broader societal beliefs affect the practices of the bar and …

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