Positive Developments on the Civil Right to Counsel

As reported in Newsweek and the New York Times earlier this month, years of advocacy efforts to establish a civil right to counsel, particularly in the area of housing evictions, may finally be paying off in New York City.  New York’s housing court is a notorious site of questionable justice, where a significant power embalance between landlords (typically represented by counsel) and tenants (typically unrepresented) plays out every weekday.  Pilot programs studying the effect of civil counsel  in Massachusetts and California, among others, have established that such assistance promotes fairer outcomes and more efficient case management.  New York City now appears poised to move beyond pilots, to establish a civil right to counsel in housing eviction cases for individuals who cannot afford representation.  While this would be a first for the U.S., it is by no means untested, since appointment of counsel in such situations is the longstanding norm for the 47 nations that make up the Council of Europe. 

With a majority of the City Counsel behind the new proposal, its fate rests with the DeBlasio Administration, which — according to press reports — has yet to articulate a position. 

Meanwhile, regardless of the outcome, kudos to the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel for taking this issue from “pie in the sky” just a few years ago to a serious possibility — and hopefully in 2015, a reality.