Right to counsel

A Kentucky statute entitles any indigent person to representation who is “being detained by a law enforcement officer, on suspicion of having committed, or who is under formal charge of having committed, or is being detained under a conviction of, a serious crime,” see Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 31.110(1), where the definition of “serious crime” includes “[a]ny legal action which could result in the detainment of a defendant.”  See Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 31.100(8)(c).   In Lewis v. Lewis, the state supreme court interpreted these provisions to mean that “an indigent person who is facing incarceration for any amount of time is entitled to appointed counsel,” including in civil contempt proceedings.  875 S.W.2d 862, 863-64 (Ky. 1993).  

This case and the relevant statutory provisions indicate that Kentucky’s right-to-counsel analysis is concerned solely with the litigant’s liberty interest, rather than the nominally “civil” or “criminal” nature of the proceedings.  This focus is consistent with the holding in Lassiter v. Department of Social Services, that “[I]t is the defendant’s interest in personal freedom, and not simply the special Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments right to counsel in criminal cases, which triggers the right to appointed counsel ….” 452 U.S. 18, 25 (1981).