Wisconsin's poor are entitled to civil justice

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/wisconsins-poor-are-entitled-to-an-equal-shot-at-civil-justice-should-state-give-free-legal-aid-in-civil-cases-131642573.html


Interesting opinion piece in the Milwaukee Urinal/Sentinel today.

..snip..

If you are poor and face 10 days in jail for a bar fight, you are entitled to a free lawyer under state and federal law. If you are poor and face eviction, foreclosure, bankruptcy, domestic violence, repossession of the family car, garnishment of your wages, loss of child custody or denial of disability benefits to which you are entitled, you are on your own.

In a civil case, you are expected to make sense of applicable laws and governmental regulations to file your complaint, master complex rules of civil procedure to plead your claim and learn esoteric rules of evidence to present your case to a court.

In Milwaukee, 127,000 adults are functionally illiterate - meaning they cannot fill out a simple job application. Tens of thousands do not speak English, much less legalese. Thousands more are incarcerated or mentally or physically disabled.

Many have been swindled by predatory lenders, slum landlords or scam artists. They frequently have no understanding that they have been cheated and thus have no hope of adequately articulating their grievances to a judge.

..end..



(on edit: beware the comments. The hate is strong.)

[barbtries]

1. i read the comments.

the hate is strong indeed. greed is good and mean is better. it was a good article.

[Scuba]

2. Thanks. The difficulty of navigating the civil legal system for the poor is very real...

... I've got to figure out how to get this more light.