Our Work
For many types of civil cases, the potential consequences of losing are dramatic: loss of one’s home, children, livelihood, education, health, safety, liberty, or even life.
In these cases, we must guarantee a right to counsel.
A right to counsel in these critical civil cases can help individual litigants reach better outcomes, aid courts in making more accurate and just decisions, and produce economic benefits for the communities where it is implemented.
While every state provides a right to counsel for some civil cases, it’s a patchwork at best. We discussed this on the American Constitution Society’s Broken Law Podcast (Episode 88), where we joined the host and Georgetown Law Professor Yael Cannon to discuss the civil justice gap and the right to counsel.
Since 2003, the NCCRC and those in our national network have fought for such a right in various civil cases. We do not pursue a one-size-fits-all approach; rather, we work with advocates at the city, county, state, or federal level to support their approach.
What We Do
Legislative Support
The NCCRC provides support on the RTC-related bills that fit our priority areas.
We monitor activity on all pending bills nationwide that would impact the right to counsel in civil cases at the state, federal, and local levels. In the 2023-2024 legislative session, we tracked 241 bills around the country. We ensure that advocates in the affected jurisdictions are informed about the pending bills. We work closely with those advocates to assist with bill amendments, provide national research, engage with bill sponsors and committees, and testify at hearings.
If you have questions or comments about our legislative support work or want to partner with us on legislative efforts, contact our Legal Research and Legislative Specialist: Amanda Insalaco, insalacoa@publicjustice.org.
Legislative Highlights
New York City’s 2017 tenant RTC: the start of a movement
The NCCRC supported advocates in NYC as they passed the first tenant right to counsel legislation in the country. Intro 214-b (2017) guaranteed that people facing eviction at 200% or below the federal poverty level would have a right to counsel. Once passed, this legislation sparked a nationwide movement to establish a right to counsel for tenants. The Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, a tenant organizing powerhouse, led the work to pass the bill. The NCCRC assisted the coalition, wrote an op-ed supporting the bill, submitted testimony (for the bill and later amendments), and gave input on a cost-benefit report produced by Stout.
Significant changes to California’s adult conservatorship law in 2021
Due to a 2021 law, California conservatorships no longer require a protected person to request counsel for counsel to be appointed. The NCCRC worked with advocates in CA and submitted testimony in favor of the 2021 bill.
Counsel for Mississippi parents in child welfare/termination of parental rights cases in 2024
For a long time, Mississippi has lagged behind the vast majority of other states by not guaranteeing counsel to low-income parents in child welfare and termination of parental rights cases. That changed in 2024, when the state enacted a law to provide a right to counsel in both situations. This was the result of more than a decade of work in Mississippi by various stakeholders that the NCCRC supported.
In the 2023-2024 legislative session, we submitted testimony on the following RTC-related bills:
Federal | Civil forfeiture: HB 1525. In civil forfeiture matters currently, RTC is provided discretionarily and only where someone’s primary residence is subject to forfeiture. HB 1525 would make appointment mandatory and regardless of the type of property subject to forfeiture, where the person is indigent, or if the cost of representation would exceed the value of the property.
HI | Child welfare: SB 411 / HB 829 / HB 779. Codifying recent Hawaii Supreme Court decisions to require the court to appoint counsel for indigent “legal parents” upon the filing of petition for custody or family supervision.
IA | Child welfare: HF 2209 / HF 2580. Currently, the law provides that the court shall appoint both counsel and a guardian ad litem for a child subject to an abuse/neglect petition or a petition to terminate parental rights. However, the same person may serve in both roles. But if there is a conflict between the child’s legal interests and best interests, the court may appoint a separate guardian ad litem. The bill would change the law such that the court is required to appoint counsel for any child 10 years of age or older. If the child is younger than 10, the court must appoint a guardian ad litem instead.
Litigation Support
The NCCRC assists with RTC-related litigation around the country.
The right to counsel in various civil cases has been and continues to be litigated around the country. A court can issue a decision that recognizes a right to counsel under the state constitution or interpret a statutory provision to provide for such a right. Over the last ten years, the NCCRC has supported right to counsel litigation in various states. We do not report on active litigation. For additional information, please contact John Pollock, the NCCRC’s coordinator at jpollock@publicjustice.org.
Litigation Highlights
HI | Right to counsel for parents in children abuse and neglect cases. The NCCRC supported the litigation in In re T.M., 319 P.3d 338 (Haw. 2014), and In re L.I., 482 P.3d 1079 (Haw. 2021), which established and expanded the right to counsel for indigent parents in child welfare cases under Hawaii’s Constitution. Read more.
PA | Right to counsel for people facing incarceration for failure to pay fees/fines. The NCCRC filed an amicus brief in Commonwealth v. Diaz, 191 A.3d 850 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2018), in support of a constitutional right to counsel. The court held that those facing incarceration for inability to pay court fees/fines have a constitutional right to counsel. Read more.
NJ | Right to counsel for parents in administrative adjudications of abuse and neglect. The NCCRC contributed to the amicus briefing filed by the ACLU in DCPP v. L.O., 213 A.3d 187 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2019). The court held that parents who are administratively adjudicated for abuse/neglect are entitled to be appointed counsel because the adjudication is a “consequence of magnitude.” This decision was the first in the country to recognize a right to counsel in an administrative proceeding. Read more.
NJ | Right to counsel for people facing driver’s license suspension for failure to pay child support. The NCCRC worked with counsel to help develop the right to counsel claim in this 2018 case, where a New Jersey trial recognized a constitutional right to counsel for child support obligors facing suspension of their driver’s licenses. This was the first decision ever to recognize a RTC for suspension of a driver’s license. Read more.
PA | Right to counsel for children in termination of parental rights cases. The NCCRC supported the litigation in In re L.B.M., 161 A.3d 172 (Pa. 2017), where the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania clearly established the right to client-directed counsel for children in termination of parental rights cases. 161 A.3d 172 (Pa. 2017). Read more.
MA | Right to counsel for parents in modification or termination of private guardianship. In May 2016, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that parents have a constitutional right to counsel in proceedings to modify or terminate a private guardianship of a child. This followed a 2014 decision (also assisted by the NCCRC) recognizing parents’ right to counsel when guardianship is established.
Public Education
Development of model acts and civil RTC resolutions.
The NCCRC was instrumental in the unanimous 2006 passage of American Bar Association (ABA) Resolution 112A, which “urges federal, state, and territorial governments to provide legal counsel as a matter of right at public expense to low-income persons in those categories of adversarial proceedings where basic human needs are at stake, such as those involving shelter, sustenance, safety, health or child custody, as determined by each jurisdiction.” The resolution was co-sponsored by thirteen state and local bar associations, and the principles therein were subsequently adopted by an additional six state bar associations and five access to justice commissions. The NCCRC also contributed substantially to the ABA’s 2010 Model Access Act and Basic Principles, which give guidance to states considering the implementation of new rights to counsel.
In 2018, with the cooperation with the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID), the NCCRC authored Resolution 114, which calls for a right to counsel whenever physical liberty is at stake, no matter whether it’s civil or criminal and regardless of whether the plaintiff is the state or not.
Raising awareness about international treaty obligations.
The U.S. has ratified two international treaties, which make the provision of counsel mandatory in certain civil cases. These include the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The NCCRC has repeatedly encouraged the United States to meet its obligations by submitting testimony during public comment periods. Additionally, the NCCRC participated in a Civil Society Consultation with the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable regarding Goal 16 of the U.N.’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which relates to access to justice.
Press and media work
An essential part of the NCCRC’s work is speaking to the media and general public about the importance of a right to counsel in basic human needs civil cases. Our media page has a sampling of some of the press coverage of the issue and of the NCCRC.
Key Press: Alone Before the Law. A 2021 Washington Post 4-part editorial series on civil RTC.
Part 1: broad civil RTC survey
Part 2: adoptions
Part 3: evictions, guardianships, and general legal aid supply/demand
Part 4: domestic violence
Publications and other advocacy tools
While direct technical support is an important part of our work, we also strive to put as much information as possible in writing so that advocates can access it on their own. So check out our publications page and advocacy tools page for resources that can help educate and empower.
“It is time, it is past time, for this great nation to embrace a civil analog to Gideon, and to ensure that in those life-altering situations that so many of our fellow citizens face, the right to adequate legal representation is mandated. There will be those who reflexively say, “well, we don’t have the resources to do” that which I call on the nation to do. But let’s be honest: we do not lack the resources or at least the means by which those resources might be generated. We lack the will. We have turned away from and chosen not to hear the cries who live on the margins of our society.
This is a stain on our democracy.”
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, 2016 NLADA Exemplar Awards Dinner
