NH Supreme Court considers right to attorney for indigent parents
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March 15, 2012
Concord, New Hampshire: The New Hampshire Supreme Court will soon decide whether state budget cuts to public defenders violate the rights of indigent parents who are charged by the state with neglect by preventing their access to legal counsel. The problem arose when general cuts to the state budget eliminated the $1.2 million provided to public defenders of parents charged with neglect, of which the state charges around 350-400 a year. The United States Constitution guarantees the right to counsel in trial in the Sixth Amendment. Local Attorney Michael Shklar has criticized the small cut, telling the press, "APLA, AFSA, and using terms like ‘reasonable efforts’ that no ordinary person understands. If I use the example of a parent in this very case, the man is blind. None of the reports are available in Braille. How is somebody like that supposed to defend himself?" However, Assistant State Attorney General Jeanne Herrick disagrees, telling the press, "The notion that all the resources of the state are against a litigant is contrary to the very purpose of the statute. In fact, the resources of the state are in favor of reuniting that child with those parents. There are social workers who are hired by the state to assist parents to get that child back, reunited with those parents."[1] The court is expected to decide in the coming weeks. If the court rules in favor of the state, the decision may be challenged later in Federal courts as a constitutional question.
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Footnotes
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Federal courts:
First Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Hampshire • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Hampshire
State courts:
New Hampshire Supreme Court • New Hampshire Superior Courts • New Hampshire Circuit Courts • New Hampshire Probate Courts • New Hampshire District Court • New Hampshire Family Division
State resources:
Courts in New Hampshire • New Hampshire judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Hampshire
