| In the 1963 groundbreaking Gideon v. Wainwright case, the United States Supreme Court decided that in state court criminal cases, an indigent defendant must be provided with an attorney at government expense. Since then, many legal activists have contended the same right should be extended to indigent civil litigants. Unfortunately, as of now, the Court has refused to extend the Gideon decision to civil litigants. Nevertheless, in courts across the country, on a daily basis, indigent people participate in the civil legal process without the assistance of a lawyer, many times to their detriment. In Pennsylvania, legal activists have begun to consider whether the Pennsylvania Constitution may be utilized as a basis of relief. Clearly, the citizens of this country will have to decide whether we are comfortable allowing our fellow citizens to be legally bound by decisions they have made without the services of a legally trained assistant. |
