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Full-Text Articles in Law
"It's Not You, It's Your Caseload": Using Cronic To Solve Indigent Defense Underfunding, Samantha Jaffe
"It's Not You, It's Your Caseload": Using Cronic To Solve Indigent Defense Underfunding, Samantha Jaffe
Michigan Law Review
In the United States, defendants in both federal and state prosecutions have the constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. That right is in jeopardy. In the postconviction setting, the standard for ineffective assistance of counsel is prohibitively high, and Congress has restricted federal habeas review. At trial, severe underfunding for state indigent defense systems has led to low pay, little support, and extreme caseloads—which combine to create conditions where lawyers simply cannot represent clients adequately. Overworked public defenders and contract attorneys represent 80 percent of state felony defendants annually. Three out of four countywide public defender systems and fifteen …
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Over thirty years ago the United States Supreme Court upheld an Oregon statute that allowed sentencing courts, with a number of important procedural safeguards, to impose on indigent criminal defendants the obligation to repay the cost of their court appointed attorneys. The practice of ordering recoupment or contribution (application fees or co-pays) of public defender attorney's fees is widespread, although collection rates are unsurprisingly low. Developments since the Court's decision in Fuller v. Oregon show that not only is recoupment not cost-effective, but it too easily becomes an aspect of punishment, rather than legitimate cost recovery. In a number of …
Unconscionable Contracting For Indigent Defense: Using Contract Theory To Invalidate Conflict Of Interest Clauses In Fixed-Fee Contracts, Jacqueline Mcmurtie
Unconscionable Contracting For Indigent Defense: Using Contract Theory To Invalidate Conflict Of Interest Clauses In Fixed-Fee Contracts, Jacqueline Mcmurtie
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Indigent defense remains in crisis and yet constitutional challenges to promote systemic change have met with mixed success. This Article explores the new strategy of applying contract theory and principles to challenge indigent defense contracts that violate the canons of professional responsibility. This Article begins by discussing the author's experience working on cases of indigent defendants whose convictions were overturned through the efforts of the Innocence Project Northwest. The erroneous convictions were facilitated by the indigent defense contract in place at the time of the convictions. Pursuant to this contract, the indigent defense contractor agreed to provide representation in all …
The Pro Bono Priority: The University Of Michigan's Approach To Instilling Public Service, Robert E. Precht, Suellyn Scarnecchia
The Pro Bono Priority: The University Of Michigan's Approach To Instilling Public Service, Robert E. Precht, Suellyn Scarnecchia
Articles
The Pro Bono Priority is a two-part feature on pro bono service in Michigan law schools. in Crossing the Bar, the column of the Legal Education Committee, Dolores M. Coulter discusses how Michigan law schools measure up to the recommendations made in Learning to Serve, the report of the Commission on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities from the Association of American Law Schools. In the Access to Justice column, Robert E. Precht and Suellyn Scarnecchia focus specifically on the University of MichiHgan's unique approach to pro bono service.
Poverty Lawyering In The Golden Age, Matthew Diller
Poverty Lawyering In The Golden Age, Matthew Diller
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973 by Martha F. Davis
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Essay introduces the Immigrants' Legal Needs Study (ILNS), which provides most of the data for this Essay. Part II focuses on immigrants' access to legal assistance. It analyzes the problems and needs of recently arrived poor immigrants-both immigrants share with longer established poor residents as well as special needs related to immigrants' residency status. Part III addresses the present day demography of our urban communities, including the levels of new immigration. Parts IV and V detail the legal difficulties faced by poor immigrants, the ways they deal with these problems, and community responses to these needs. …
The Breath Of The Unfee'd Lawyer: Statutory Fee Limitations And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Capital Litigation, Albert L. Vreeland Ii
The Breath Of The Unfee'd Lawyer: Statutory Fee Limitations And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Capital Litigation, Albert L. Vreeland Ii
Michigan Law Review
This Note argues that fee limitations deprive indigent defendants of their right to effective assistance of counsel. Part I of this Note reviews state court decisions that address Sixth Amendment challenges to fee limitations, yet fail to address the broader concerns about the appointed counsel system. Part II considers the inherent disincentives and burdens fee limitations impose on attorneys and suggests that the limits threaten the indigent accused's right to effective assistance of counsel. A comparison of the fee limitations and the time required to prepare and try a capital case reveals the gross inadequacy of statutory fee provisions. In …
The Public Defender, Robert R. Kimball
The Public Defender, Robert R. Kimball
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Public Defender by Lisa J. McIntyre
Forcing Attorneys To Represent Indigent Civil Litigants: The Problems And Some Proposals, Greg Stevens
Forcing Attorneys To Represent Indigent Civil Litigants: The Problems And Some Proposals, Greg Stevens
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that uncompensated court appointments represent an unsatisfactory means to provide counsel for indigents. Part I discusses the policy arguments for and against forced, uncompensated court appointments. Part I concludes that the arguments against these appointments outweigh the arguments in favor of them. Part II argues that they violate the Constitution's prohibitions against uncompensated takings and involuntary servitude. Part III offers a proposal that would provide effective representation for indigent civil litigants, while avoiding infringement of attorneys' constitutional rights.
Money And Justice: Who Owns The Courts?, Michigan Law Review
Money And Justice: Who Owns The Courts?, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Money and Justice: Who Owns the Courts? by Lois G. Forer
Poor People's Lawyers In Transition, Michigan Law Review
Poor People's Lawyers In Transition, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Poor People's Lawyers in Transition by Jack Katz
Do Defendants Have An Attorney When They Have A Public Defender, James Eisenstein
Do Defendants Have An Attorney When They Have A Public Defender, James Eisenstein
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Counsel for the Poor: Criminal Defense in Urban America by Robert Hermann, Eric Single, and John Boston
The Emerging Right Of Legal Assistance For The Indigent In Civil Proceedings, Jeffrey M. Mandell
The Emerging Right Of Legal Assistance For The Indigent In Civil Proceedings, Jeffrey M. Mandell
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
After the Supreme Court declared in Gideon v. Wainwright that indigents have a constitutional right to appointed counsel in criminal cases, attention turned to the possibility that a similar right could be found for civil litigants. Although there is no explicit constitutional guarantee of counsel for the civil litigant, the due process clause, which protects property rights as well as personal freedoms, arguably mandates that there be a right to professional representation of all citizens in all courts. The inability of most laymen to effectively present even a rudimentary case on their own behalf indicates that without counsel a meaningful …
The Myth Of Sisyphus: Legal Services Efforts On Behalf Of The Poor, Lawrence E. Rothstein
The Myth Of Sisyphus: Legal Services Efforts On Behalf Of The Poor, Lawrence E. Rothstein
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In Greek mythology there is a story about the tyrant, Sisyphus, who is condemned to suffer everlasting anguish. Eternally, he rolls a huge rock up the steep side of a mountain only to have it roll down again just as he reaches the top. Such is the plight in which the poor person finds himself when confronting the legal system. If the poor individual is able to overcome the massive obstacles placed between him and full, fair litigation of his case, he finds that the rules to be applied to the case are stacked against him. This situation is not …
Legal Aid--Lay Control And Organizational Complexity Render Oeo Legal Service Program Unacceptable To New York Court--In Re Community Action For Legal Services, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Legal Aid--Lay Control And Organizational Complexity Render Oeo Legal Service Program Unacceptable To New York Court--In Re Community Action For Legal Services, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and the New York City Council Against Poverty approved the organization and the OEO funding of three legal service corporations as part of a comprehensive program to provide legal assistance to New York City's poor. According to the plan, the first corporation, Community Action for Legal Services, Inc. (CALS), was to approve proposed plans for setting up and operating neighborhood law offices with OEO funds and then to supervise and coordinate the agencies that sought to put those plans into operation. These agencies, operating as delegates of CALS, and under subcontracts with it, were …