Providing Services to Indigent Clients
The ABA Journal, Law News Now, featured an article on March 1, 2013 titled: Fifty years after Gideon, lawyers still struggle to provide counsel to the indigent. And what a resonating tone that topic struck with the staff here Access Justice, who aspire to provide as much quality and affordable legal services to low-income clients as is humanly possible. However, with such an underserved population, it often feels like indigent individuals’ legal needs are going unheard and their pressing problems unresolved.
The ABA article details that: In its Gideon decision, the justices unanimously overruled a 1942 case, Betts v. Brady, and held that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel was a fundamental right made applicable to the states through the 14th Amendment. Justice Hugo L. Black wrote for the court that it was an “obvious truth” that a fair trial for an indigent defendant could not be guaranteed without the assistance of counsel. The “noble ideal” that every defendant “stands equal before the law … cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him,” Black wrote.
Access Justice hopes to fulfill that obvious truth and provide quality and affordable legal services, as is illustrated in our missing statement.
Access Justice℠ is a full service, nonprofit law firm… Serving clients’ needs and the public interest. No longer must our society accept the huge and unfortunate gap in the availability of quality, affordable legal services. Access Justice, with our emphasis on social justice, offers quality assistance across a wide spectrum of legal issues. And, we do so either without cost (“Pro Bono”) or at very modest, affordable rates (“Low Bono”).
“We help clients protect what is rightfully theirs and achieve their goals at minimal cost.”
-Elizabeth, former AJ Volunteer Attorney
If you are interested in being a part of Access Justice or in donating to our extraordinary cause, please call us today at 612-879-8092 or visit our financial support page on the website at Donate to Access Justice. Thank you so much for your support, as it helps Access Justice’s efforts in continuing to provide the ever-so-needed legal services to the low-income populace!