Creates the New York Civil Gideon Act

Summary of provisions

Section 1 - Title of the Act

Section 2 - Representation of persons in civil matters - Legislative findings, Civil Right to Counsel Commission, Assigned Counsel for Civil Matters Review Panel, Compensation and Reimbursement

Section 3 - Amends the county law, labor law, social services law, the administrative code of the city of NY, vehicle and traffic law, public health law, real property actions and proceedings, civil practice law and rules and the family court act - to include the right to counsel

Section 4 - Amends the real property actions and proceeding law in regard to the right to counsel in foreclosure matters

Section 5 - Amends the county law to include provision for investigative, expert or other services necessary for representation

Section 6 - Amends the vehicle and traffic law Section 227 to include the right to counsel in certain occurrences which are punishable by revocation or suspension of a driver's license

Section 7 - Amends the vehicle and traffic law Section 261 to include the right to counsel in certain occurrences which are punishable by revocation or suspension of a driver's license

Section 8 - Establishes the Civil Gideon Assistance Fund

Section 9 - Amends the judiciary law to establish seed money for the Civil Gideon Assistance Fund

Section 10 - Effective Date

Justification

Every year, at least 80% of the civil legal needs of low income New Yorkers go unmet. These legal needs often concern matters pertaining to the essentials Of life including shelter, food, employment, health, and family sustainability.

The American Bar Association adopted a resolution in 2006 urging all states to provide legal counsel as a matter of right to low income

persons in adversarial proceedings where basic human needs are at stake. The New York State Bar Association followed suit in 2008 reiterating the need for counsel in certain civil matters. After several studies documenting the need, and an in depth analysis lead by Chief Judge Lippman of New York's Court of Appeals, it is now uncontroverted fact that the substantial number of unrepresented litigants in civil legal matters adversely impacts the quality of justice for all parties in the courts of this state.

Furthermore, the lack of available civil legal assistance undermines comprehensive assistance for crime victims, disrupts children and young adults' education, worsens chronic health problems, increases unemployment, and increases the cost of medical care. The lack of civil legal services results too often in homelessness that not only affects the individual families, but also destabilizes entire neighborhoods.

Due at least in part to the collapse of America's economy that triggered the "Great Recession," the need for civil legal services and the inability of the citizenry to afford legal representation has spread beyond individuals below the federal poverty guidelines to homeowners and other middle income New Yorkers who provide the foundation for New York's economy. The substantial number of unrepresented litigants in civil legal matters increases the amount of litigation because there is no incentive to negotiate outside of the courtroom, and undermines our communities ant the rule of law.

It has been found that when a society is unable to meet its basic human needs, it is in an ongoing state of emergency. New York has reached that crisis point after more than five years of severe recession and an historic inequality between civil plaintiffs represented by expert counsel, and defendants who are unable to afford the representation upon which the fairness of our legal system depends. Consequently, the outcomes from litigation between such unbalanced parties harms New York's working families and our most vulnerable populations.

The unmet need for civil legal assistance in the state is profoundly detrimental to vulnerable New Yorkers and costs taxpayers millions of dollars by increasing homelessness, poverty, and crime. In order to address this ongoing state of emergency, the right to, counsel in certain civil matters is imperative.

Every day in housing courts around New York, 90 percent of landlords appear with attorneys, and 90 percent of the tenants do not. Around the state, housing courtrooms are filled with legal professionals who know every nuance of landlord-tenant law standing on one side and impoverished tenants who do not know their rights on the other. And every day the discomforting reality is that tenants without attorneys are evicted, lose their possessions, become homeless and their children potentially end up in foster care. This situation must not continue.

New York is the birthplace of the American abolitionist movement, the women's rights movement, the labor movement, the gay rights movement and of many other great moral ideas, that we as New Yorkers agreed to implement when the time was right. Just like all those historic ideas,

it is imperative a civil right to counsel be implement because it is who we are as New Yorkers.

It is much more expensive to provide emergency solutions than to avert crisis through prudent investment. It is time, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the landmark case Gideon v. Wainright that created the right to counsel in criminal cases, to create a "Civil Gideon" that will guarantee indigent defendants a right to counsel in civil matters where one's fundamental human needs are at peril.

Legislative history

2013-2014: S5993 - Referred to Local Government.

Fiscal implication

No cost to the state. An assessment will be levied upon lawyers admitted to practice in the State of New York, and the fund may accept federal, state or local grants and donations.

Effective date

Immediately, and the appointment of members to the civil right to counsel commission and the assigned counsel for civil matters review panel shall be completed within 90 days of such effective date.