Legal Aid in the United States
Structure of the Legal
Aid System:
Multiple systems: national system for criminal cases in the federal courts;
State and local systems for cases in the state and local courts; public defenders in
some tribal jurisdictions;
Public Defense Services For Criminal Defendants: The system for providing indigent
defense (criminal) and legal aid (civil) services varies from state to state and locales
within each state. The range of approaches for providing indigent defense services
ranges from organized defender offices to offices administering assigned counsel who
are private practitioners who provide indigent defense services on a contractual basis
and many hybrid permutations of these approaches. The budget for indigent defense
services is usually made up of funding from multiple sources, including the state
government and county government, and other sources.
Pursuant to key decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal services at public defense
are required to be provided to indigent felony defendants in state courts. Gideon v.
Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), extending the right to counsel that had been
imposed on federal courts under the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment. In
1967 the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in In Re Gault 387 U.S.1 (1967) extended
the right to counsel to children charged in juvenile delinquency proceedings. The
right to counsel was subsequently further expanded in Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407
U.S. 25 (1972) which required the right to counsel I all misdemeanor state
proceedings where there was a potential loss of liberty.
Legal aid for civil cases: Methods for providing legal aid for civil cases vary from
state to state and within states as to the degree to which civil case legal aid is
available. Methods for providing legal aid for civil cases currently used include public
interest law firms and community legal clinics, which receiving funding from
charities, private donors, the federal government (Legal Services Corporation in
particular), some local and state government funds, and interest derived from Lawyer
trust Accounts ((IOLTA). In addition, some states require attorneys to perform a
certain number of “pro bono” hours as part of their bar membership requirements.
Services:
Indigent defense services for criminal defendants are required to be provided for both
federal and state cases for all defendants in criminal matters (felony and
misdemeanor) where there is the potential for loss of liberty. The provision of legal
aid services for civil cases varies across the county, both in terms of the degree to
which these services are available and methods by which they are provided
Spending on Legal Aid as
a Percentage of GDP:
N/A due to the numerous funding sources involved
Sources:
Answering Gideon’s Call Outside the Courtroom: Policy Reform Strategies to Protect
the Right to Counsel. Symposium. March 18, 2013. American University. Gideon v.
Wainwright and related Case Materials. www.american.edu/justice/spa/jpo
National Legal Aid and Defender Association. History of Civil Legal Aid.
http://www.nlada.org/About/About_HistoryCivil
Barbara Creel. The Right to Counsel for Indians Accused of a Crime: A Tribal and
Congressional Imperative. University of New Mexico School of Law Legal Studies
Research Paper Series. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2265928