It was 50 years ago, in the Circuit Court in Bay County Florida, that  a 51-year old indigent wanderer, Clarence Earl Gideon, stood in court, accused of petty larceny.  He told the court that he was not ready for trial: "Why aren't you ready?" asked the Court.  "I have no counsel," answered Gideon. "The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by counsel."  Of course, Gideon was wrong about the law at the time, and, being forced to answer the charges alone because he could not afford a lawyer, he was convicted.  Gideon's demand for a lawyer led to the famous Supreme Court case, Gideon v. Wainright, establishing the right to a lawyer in criminal cases.

Today, it is hard to imagine that people were once forced to face a judge, jury and possible prison without a lawyer, but in fact there are still hundreds of thousands of people who do stand alone in court when they face serious consequences -- in civil cases: a parent faced with the loss of custody of her child, seniors faced with the loss of their apartments, families who are threatened with foreclosure and the loss of their houses.  The vast inequality of these settings is as unfair as Gideon's first trial, and it is for this reason that since the day of Gideon's victory, we have talked about "Civil Gideon" -- that is, the right to counsel for indigent people facing civil cases involving basic rights.

I'm happy to say that lawyers in Pennsylvania are part of the national debate with both the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association having convened task forces to address the scope, cost and strategies for securing such a right.  I was honored to have recently been appointed by Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Rudolph Garcia to join that task force and help guide the strategy in Pennsylvania.

Here at the Law Center, we work on broad strategies that directly and indirectly address the fact that people cannot afford lawyers for matters involving their most basic needs. We offer training and low-cost or free consultations for families with children with disabilities so that they will understand their rights; we train other lawyers who are in contact with the families -- one of those trainings is described below -- and we are training pro bono lawyers at Dechert LLP and law students at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel to represent those families.  In Lebanon, Pa., families were altogether receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil fines and even jail time when their children were truant; without counsel they did not know that the fines exceeded the lawful limit and were contrary to state policy.  As described below, when Michael Churchill and the NAACP of Greater Philadelphia started to ask questions, some of the fines were reduced or eliminated while others were kept, apparently without any rationale.  The families, represented by the Law Center and Pepper Hamilton's Tom Schmidt, have now filed a federal lawsuit to recover the fines already paid and eliminate the rest.

Our work to bring lawyers to tackle the great human needs of our region can only continue with the great tide of financial support generated by you, our supporters.  This is collective and ongoing  work.  Thank you for joining us!  

Very truly yours,