Explore the vast range of titles available.

The notion of law as sacred, and lawyers as righteous saviors, may seem anachronistic in the current context of heavy caseloads and expedited processing in the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, language reflecting these ideals still permeates defense attorneys' descriptions of their roles, their legal practice, and their relationships to their colleagues and adversaries. We examine this language - specifically, attorneys' quasi-religious rhetoric - to better understand courtroom dynamics: how attorneys see themselves, their work, their colleagues, and their legal adversaries. In this analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 defense attorneys, we find that attorneys use of quasi-religious rhetoric manifests as a cultural practice that helps to establish and maintain professional identities, boundaries, and relationships. Our findings also suggest that young and novice public defenders are likely to express especially zealous views, which may compromise their efforts to collaborate within the adversarial system, as well as contribute to burnout.

Access to justice is a fundamental human right that often requires access to information. For justice to be served, access to information must be guaranteed as a right. The Public Defender’s Office of the State of São Paulo (DPESP) establishes the authority responsible for promoting access to justice for the weakest citizens in the state of São Paulo. This study analyzed DPSEP legal cases in the Ribeirão Preto region from 2013 to July 2016 involving the right to health and interviews in 2016 with users of the institution regarding their access to justice and the right to health. Documentary analysis supplemented the analysis of the lawsuits seeking health care and medication and the content analysis of the interviews. The results show that the Public Defender’s Office promotes assistance to the most needed in the context of lawsuits for receiving health care and medicines and protecting the right to health, even if users are not yet fully aware of rights and access to justice. In addition, the results demonstrated a relationship of trust in the contact between users and the Public Defender’s Office.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between socioeconomic vulnerabilities and due process violations in contemporary Mexico, using a novel survey of imprisoned populations. We further investigate whether institutional reforms—in particular, the 2008 reform that constitutionally mandated the provision of trained public defenders for those without private counsel—help offset the impact of preexisting socioeconomic disparities on the likelihood of suffering a due process violation. We find that women, indigenous people, and people with less schooling are more likely to suffer a due process violation. This finding, is, unfortunately, not surprising. The 2008 constitutionally mandated reform to provide quality public defenders has done little to alleviate this situation. Although it has improved the experience of defendants overall—whether represented by private or public counsel—it has failed to create an office of public defenders that successfully functions as an equalizing mechanism that offsets pre-existing socioeconomic inequalities. Instead, our analysis suggests that those most benefited by these reforms are those who did not need them as much to begin with: those who rely on private lawyers for their legal representation. This paper contributes to the literature that critically examines the idea of equality under the law and the mechanisms that seek to guarantee it.

Purpose Persons diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system than general population controls. Although previous survey evidence has suggested that federal district attorneys are limited in their knowledge of the psycholegal impairments presented by defendants with this condition, such research has yet to have been conducted with state-specific public defenders. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The Dillman Total Design Method was used to disseminate an electronic survey to public defenders in Minnesota. The survey included questions designed to measure their knowledge bases on and legal experiences with FASD. Surveys were completed by 135 respondents (nMen=63; nWomen=72) with an average of 16.22 years (SD=11.34) of legal experience. Findings Respondents varied in their knowledge bases on the cognitive impairments, social deficits, and physical complications characteristic of FASD. Less than 20 percent of respondents reported having received training on the psycholegal impairments experienced by individuals diagnosed with FASD from arrest until the start of adjudication, during adjudication, or during incarceration. Over 95 percent of respondents reported that they could benefit from a Continuing Legal Education course on the psycholegal impairments of individuals diagnosed with FASD, and over 90 percent reported that they could benefit from being provided the findings of a screening tool for FASD in their daily practice. Originality/value First survey of state public defenders’ perceptions of FASD.

Although immigrants have a right to be represented by counsel in immigration court, it has long been the case that the government has no obligation to provide an attorney for those who are unable to afford one. Recently, however, a broad coalition of public figures, scholars, advocates, courts, and philanthropic foundations have begun to push for the establishment of a public defender system for poor immigrants facing deportation. Yet the national debate about appointing defense counsel for immigrants has proceeded with limited information regarding how many immigrants currently obtain attorneys and the efficacy and efficiency of such representation. This Article presents the results of the first national study of access to counsel in United States immigration courts. Drawing on data from over 1.2 million deportation cases decided between 2007 and 2012, we find that only 37% of all immigrants, and a mere 14% of detained immigrants, secured representation. Only 2% of immigrants obtained pro bono representation from nonprofit organizations, law school clinics, or large law firm volunteer programs. Barriers to representation were particularly severe in immigration courts located in rural areas and small cities, where almost one-third of detained cases were adjudicated. Moreover, we find that immigrants with attorneys fared far better: among similarly situated removal respondents, the odds were fifteen times greater that immigrants with representation, as compared to those without, sought relief, and five-and-a-half times greater that they obtained relief from removal. In addition, we show that involvement of counsel was associated with certain gains in court efficiency: represented respondents brought fewer unmeritorious claims, were more likely to be released from custody, and, once released, were more likely to appear at their future deportation hearings. This research provides an essential data-driven understanding of immigration representation that should inform discussions of expanding access to counsel.

Applying Circle of Decisional Autonomy Theory to Diagonal Representation Practice.63 Conclusion.65 Introduction A lot has been written about the crisis of indigent defense and the plethora of factors that have led to the crisis, like the lack of guidance on how indigent defense providers can most efficiently distribute their insufficient resources.1 This lack of guidance has left jurisdictions across the country to their own devices, resulting in a national landscape of very different models, each with its own variations of the same problems plaguing indigent defense.2 Irene Joe is one of few scholars who have turned their eye to the administrators of indigent defense,3 and in her newest article, Administering Effective Assistance of Counsel? she explores three concrete, structural, and underregulated decisions5 these administrators need to think strategically about to ensure they are efficiently distributing insufficient resources. In her article, Joe does not suggest that all organizations adopt one model of case distribution over another; she acknowledges that both systems have advantages and drawbacks.10 Joe does, however, implore administrators of indigent defense to consider which model would be most effective for their organization in ensuring they meet their required baseline of representation.11 The American Bar Association (\"ABA\") has endorsed vertical representation for one main reason: to build trust12 with clients through continuity. A practical solution DBE64A78D14697C3234F9/S2056472422000631a.pdf/prevalence-of-mental-disorders-indefendants-at-criminal-court.pdf. to this challenge was to have attorneys, referred to as \"catchers,\"24 assigned to certain courtrooms to serve as a client's counsel for that particular court appearance in the event that the client's assigned attorney was unavailable. [...]while in theory vertical representation is ideal, in practice the challenges resulting from it can be just as problematic as those that plague horizontal representation, as described by Joe.25 Under a horizontal representation model, indigent clients receive services from different lawyers at each stage of the trial-level process,26 like arraignment, motions practice, and trial.

Lawyers for the Poor explores the development of legal advice and aid provision in England between 1890 and 1990. It is the first book-length study to place legal advice provision in the wider context of English civil society and the welfare state, and it demonstrates how making it easier for people to get advice on their problems was shaped by changing ideas of what it meant to be a citizen. This book examines the origins in the after-hours ‘Poor Man’s Lawyer’ voluntary work of individual lawyers in late Victorian London through to the state-subsidised legal aid schemes of post-war Britain. It considers how affordable access to help with legal matters came to be seen as a right for all, and how charities, the main political parties, the trade unions and the media were involved in trying to achieve this by the 1940s. It also reveals the problems and advantages of offering legal advice services as part of the welfare state after 1949 and the ongoing concerns about using public money on private troubles – issues that remain unresolved in the twenty-first century. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of welfare, citizenship, politics, social policy and voluntary action in twentieth-century Britain, and to practitioners.

The importance of legal representation to a criminal defendant is widely accepted, but the quality of government-provided counsels (particularly public defenders) has continuously been questioned. Based on data from Tulsa County DUI and Drug programs in Oklahoma, the authors tested the impact of legal representation (public defender versus private counsel) on clients’ performance in program, measured by plea terms and program outcome. Initial bivariate analyses showed disparate effect of legal representation, as clients represented by private counsels received better plea terms and fared better in program outcome. This effect, however, disappeared once other variables were controlled. Instead, factors closely related to the clients themselves (e.g., demographic features and their criminal behaviors) significantly impacted their program performance.