Publications
The NCCRC staff and participants have written about the civil right to counsel generally and in specific subject areas. Below, we’ve highlighted publications, but you’ll find everything we’ve come across written about the civil right to counsel in our bibliographies. Writing and publishing about the right to counsel raises awareness and establishes the narrative that the right to counsel must be guaranteed in critical civil cases. As former NYS Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said:
“I think we’ve got to continue to change the dialogue … to get people to understand, so that if they ask people on the street, “Gee, do you think someone with a roof over their head is going to be foreclosed, do they have the right to counsel?”, that everyone, 100%, will say, “Yeah, that’s right, they do have a right to counsel ...”
Civil RTC | General Reflection and Strategy
Patching the Patchwork: Moving the Civil Right to Counsel Forward With Key Data
Maria Roumiantseva, St. John’s University JCRED (2023)
A Right to Counsel in Critical Civil Cases and the Role of the Private Bar
Debra Gardner and Ward B. Coe, III, 47-Aug Md. B.J. 12 (July-August, 2014).
Angles of the Right to Counsel in Civil Cases Debate: Formalism, Immigration, Reviewability, and Empiricism
John Pollock, 17 U.D.C. L.R. 10 (Spring 2014).
It’s Not Triage if the Patient Bleeds Out
John Pollock and Michael Greco, Upenn Law Journal (2012).
The Relationship of the Right to Counsel and Self-Represented Litigant Movements
Richard Zorza, MIE Journal (2012).
Civil Right to Counsel’s Relationship to Antipoverty Advocacy: Further Reflections
John Pollock and Debra Gardner, Clearinghouse Review (2011).
Pre-2010
- Pursuing a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases: Introduction and Overview, Debra Gardner, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
- Thinking about a Civil Right to Counsel Since 1923, Paul Marvy, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
- Sidestepping Lassiter on the Path to Civil Gideon: Civil Douglas, Steven D. Schwinn, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
- This Issue Will Not Go Away: Continuing to Seek the Right to Counsel in Civil Cases, John Nethercut, Clearinghouse Review (2004).
Civil RTC | Overlap with Criminal Cases
Gideon and Civil Right to Counsel: Two Sides of a Coin
John Pollock, NLADA Cornerstone (2013).
It’s All About Justice: How Gideon Relates to the Right to Counsel in Civil Cases
John Pollock, ABA Human Rights Magazine (2013).
The Great Divide: Gideon and Civil Cases
John Pollock, ABA Young Lawyer Magazine (2010).
Pre-2010
A Right to Counsel in Civil Cases: Lessons from Gideon v. Wainwright, Laura Abel, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
Civil RTC | Status
The Case Against Case-By-Case: Courts Identifying Categorical Rights to Counsel in Basic Human Needs Civil Cases
John Pollock, Drake Law Review (2013).
Walking Before Running: Implementation of a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases
John Pollock, MIE Journal (2010).
Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going: A Look at the Status of the Civil Right to Counsel, and Current Efforts
John Pollock, MIE Journal (2010).
Pre-2010
- The Existing Civil Right to Counsel Infrastructure, Laura Abel and Judge Lora Livingston, Judge’s Journal (2008).
- State Statutes Providing for a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases, Laura Abel and Max Rettig, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
Key Studies and Reports
A National Survey on a Parent’s Right To Counsel in State-Initiated Dependency and Termination of Parental Rights Cases
John Pollock and Vivek Sankaran (2016) (unpublished analysis of a parent’s right to counsel in dependency and termination of parental rights cases across the 50 states).
Implementing a Civil Right to Counsel in Maryland
Maryland Access to Justice Commission (2011) (lays out possible implementation scenarios for Maryland and puts a price tag on such implementation).
Economic and Other Benefits Associated with the Provision of Civil Legal Aid
Laura Abel and Susan Vignola, Seattle Journal for Social Justice (2010) (analyzing all the studies that have demonstrated the economic benefits of providing representation).
Connecting Self-Representation to Civil Gideon: What Existing Data Reveal About When Counsel is Most Needed
Russell Engler, Fordham Urban Law Journal (2010) (analyzing existing reports and studies about legal representation and finding “…that representation is a significant variable affecting a claimant’s chances for success in eviction, custody, and debt collection cases.”)
The NCCRC collaborated on Access to Justice: Ensuring Meaningful Access to Counsel in Civil Cases, Response to the Fourth Periodic Report of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, a shadow report critiquing the 2011 report of the United States on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The shadow report flagged the lack of a right to counsel as contributing to ICCPR violations and suggested several steps the United States government can take. In 2007, the NCCRC signed on to a similar shadow report.
State Specific
Maryland
- Maryland’s Strategy for Securing a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases: Frase v. Barnhart and Beyond
John Nethercut, Clearinghouse Review (2006). - The Grasshopper and the Ant: Maryland’s Effort to Imagine a Civil Right to Counsel
Pamela Ortiz, MIE Journal (2012).
New York
Toward a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases in New York State: A Report of the New York State Bar Association
Laura Abel, Touro Law Review (2009) (link is to pre-published report).
Ohio
How to Start Advocating a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases in Your State: A Look at Ohio
Marcia Palof, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
Wisconsin
To Gideon via Griffin: The Experience in Wisconsin
John Ebbott, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
Washington
“To Promote Jurisprudential Understanding of the Law”: The Civil Right to Counsel in Washington State
Paul Marvy, Clearinghouse Review (2006).
Subject Specific
Guardianship
Right to Counsel in Restoration of Rights Cases, John Pollock and Megan Rusciano, ABA Voice of Experience Newsletter (2020).
Housing
Going Public: The State Action Requirement of Due Process in Foreclosure Litigation
John Pollock, Clearinghouse Review (2010).
Lassiter Notwithstanding: The Right to Counsel in Foreclosure Actions
John Pollock, Clearinghouse Review (2010).
The NCCRC has submitted materials to the U.N. Rapporteur on Adequate Housing regarding the need to provide a right to counsel in housing cases (including testimony in 2009 and 2013).
Additional publications about the right to counsel for tenants facing eviction are on our Tenant RTC support page.
Family Law
In re T.M. and Expanding Due Process Rights, Shriver Center
Daniel Gluck, Holly Berlin, Benjamin Lowenthal, John Pollock, Daniel Pollard, and Gavin Thornton (2014).
Op-Ed: Parties in Domestic Violence Matters Should Have a Right to Counsel
John Pollock, New Jersey Law Journal (2014).
Education
A Model Code on Education and Dignity: Presenting a Human Rights Framework for Schools
Dignity in Schools Campaign (Aug. 2012)
