Wednesday, September 25, 2024
When the basics of life are at stake, having an attorney by your side can help protect what matters most – housing, child custody, health, safety, and more. A growing national movement seeks to provide a right to counsel in cases like these. With support from the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, community organizers, legal services programs, academics, government staff, and others are ramping up efforts and successfully advancing the cause in the areas of housing, child custody, and mental health. In particular, the tenant right to counsel movement continued a run of success, with two more jurisdictions enacting a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction (bringing the total to 24), while states have added new rights to counsel for children in child welfare proceedings and adults facing mental health guardianships. These successes have come with challenges as well: getting right to counsel programs up and running, hiring enough attorneys to meet the need, pursuing litigation to establish legal precedent for a right to counsel, and adjusting to opponents’ changing tactics. Join the entire team at the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel for a conversation that will inspire, explore, reflect, and dream on the civil right to counsel movement’s past and future, providing a grounding in the movement’s realities while also looking ahead to what’s next.
