IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 960 

Recognizing the right to counsel in civil proceedings. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 8, 2020 

Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana, Mr. COHEN, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. OMAR, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. 

SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. UPTON, Ms. 

TLAIB, Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire, and Mr. NADLER) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the right to counsel in civil proceedings. 

Whereas the justice system in the United States depends on 

fair and equal access to the courts as a fundamental 

right in a democratic society; 

Whereas the first line of the United States Constitution identifies ‘‘establish Justice’’ as a purpose of the Constitution; 

Whereas, in criminal proceedings involving imprisonment, the 

United States Constitution guarantees a lawyer for anyone unable to afford one in order to ensure fairness and 

equal treatment; 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
2 

•HRES 960 IH 

Whereas engraved in stone above the entrance to the United 

States Supreme Court reads ‘‘Equal Justice Under 

Law’’; 

Whereas Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and 

president of the Conference of Chief Justices Nathan 

Hecht has said ‘‘justice for only those who can afford it 

is neither justice for all nor justice at all’’; 

Whereas civil proceedings often determine issues involving 

basic human needs, including shelter, custody of children, 

safety from abuse, health, and sustenance; 

Whereas the American Bar Association, which is the largest 

voluntary association of legal professionals in the world, 

has long urged the Federal Government and State and 

territorial governments to provide legal counsel as a matter of right at public expense to low-income individuals 

in adversarial proceedings involving basic human needs, 

including shelter, sustenance, safety, health, and child 

custody, as determined by each jurisdiction; 

Whereas individuals without lawyers face difficult and often 

insurmountable barriers to obtaining justice in the 

courts; 

Whereas courts attempting to provide justice to individuals 

without lawyers often cannot obtain vital information 

necessary for making fully informed decisions on the 

merits; 

Whereas the 2017 Justice Gap Report published by the federally funded Legal Services Corporation found that at 

least 71 percent of low-income households experience a 

civil legal problem, including problems regarding domestic 

violence, veterans’ benefits, disability access, evictions, 

housing conditions, and health care; 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
3 

•HRES 960 IH 

Whereas the 2017 Justice Gap Report found that low-income 

individuals in the United States received inadequate or 

no legal help for 86 percent of their civil legal problems; 

Whereas millions of individuals in the United States cannot 

afford to hire a lawyer, including approximately 

94,000,000 individuals with family incomes below 200 

percent of the Federal poverty guidelines (as defined by 

the Department of Health and Human Services); 

Whereas assistance programs support less than 1 civil legal 

aid attorney per 10,000 individuals with an income under 

200 percent of the Federal poverty guidelines; 

Whereas countless studies have shown that programs that 

provide attorneys to low-income individuals produce fairer 

outcomes, promote public confidence in the justice system, facilitate greater judicial efficiency, and save taxpayer dollars; 

Whereas a 2015 report titled ‘‘The Landscape of Civil Litigation in State Courts’’ published by the National Center 

for State Courts found that only 26 percent of defendants have an attorney; 

Whereas the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference 

of State Court Administrators resolved in 2015 to ‘‘support the aspirational goal of 100 percent access to effective assistance for essential civil legal needs’’; 

Whereas self-represented litigants face significantly worse 

outcomes in court, including that— 

(1) in Montgomery County, Maryland, domestic violence victims without lawyers are almost three times more 

likely than those with lawyers to drop their cases before 

obtaining final protection; 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
4 

•HRES 960 IH 

(2) in Maricopa County, Arizona, judges take, on average, less than a minute to hear eviction proceedings involving unrepresented tenants, with judgments overwhelmingly favoring landlords; 

(3) in Wisconsin, Social Security Disability claimants with representation succeed up to 70 percent of the 

time while unrepresented claimants succeed only 30 to 55 

percent of the time; and 

(4) nationwide, only 14 percent of defendants in 

debt collection proceedings have attorneys (compared 

with 99 percent of plaintiffs) and defendants with an attorney are significantly more likely to prevail (including 

10 times more likely to prevail in Virginia); 

Whereas investing in civil legal aid provides enormous cost 

savings to States, including that— 

(1) in 2016, Florida saved $60,400,000 by providing 

civil legal services, including $2,900,000 in avoided costs 

of emergency shelter, $50,600,000 in avoided foreclosure 

costs, and $6,900,000 in avoided costs associated with 

domestic violence; 

(2) for every $1 spent on civil legal aid for housing 

cases in Massachusetts in 2014 the Commonwealth saved 

$2.69 on other services, including emergency shelter, 

health care, foster care, and law enforcement, and by 

providing legal services to survivors of domestic violence, 

Massachusetts saved $2 for each $1 spent that year; 

(3) in 2011, a $53,600,000 investment in civil legal 

services in Pennsylvania created 2,643 jobs and yielded 

$594,000,000 in income and cost savings for residents, 

including a $25,000,000 savings in emergency shelter 

costs and an influx of $118,000,000 in Social Security 

benefits for low-income residents; and 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
5 

•HRES 960 IH 

(4) in 2008, civil legal aid in Missouri helped 130 

low-income families avoid homelessness, saving the State 

$1,500,000 in emergency shelter costs, and that aid provided representation in domestic violence proceedings that 

saved the State $2,200,000 in avoided costs, including 

costs relating to medical care for injuries, police resources, and counseling for affected children; 

Whereas every State has enacted legislation to guarantee 

counsel for some types of civil proceedings, most commonly child welfare and mental health proceedings, but 

the reach of these laws is very limited; 

Whereas a few States, counties, and cities throughout the 

United States have sought to address unmet civil legal 

needs by guaranteeing attorneys for individuals who cannot afford them in proceedings affecting basic human 

needs, including that— 

(1) since 1975, the State of New York has provided 

a right to appointed counsel for individuals living below 

250 percent of the Federal poverty guidelines in critical 

family law proceedings, including proceedings related to 

adoption, child custody, and domestic violence; 

(2) since 2009, California has funded the provision 

of attorneys in several counties for individuals living 

below 200 percent of the Federal poverty guidelines in 

proceedings involving basic human needs, including housing and family law proceedings; 

(3) since 2008, Wyoming has provided a right to appointed counsel for unrepresented individuals subject to 

civil commitment proceedings for mental illness; 

(4) in 2017, New York City enacted legislation to 

provide a right to counsel by 2022 for all tenants subject 

to eviction who are living at or below 200 percent of the 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
6 

•HRES 960 IH 

Federal poverty guidelines and appropriated funds to 

guarantee, in some areas of the city, the provision of full 

legal assistance to income-eligible tenants and brief consultation services to all other tenants; 

(5) in 2017 and 2018, the District of Columbia and 

Newark, New Jersey, respectively, began appropriating 

funding to provide legal counsel in eviction proceedings 

for individuals who live below 200 percent of the Federal 

poverty guidelines, with Newark, New Jersey providing 

legal counsel as a matter of right; 

(6) in 2018, the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of 

Housing and Community Development began providing 

$5,800,000 to 10 nonprofit law firms to implement the 

voter-approved ballot measure to guarantee representation for all tenants facing eviction in the city; 

(7) in 2019, Los Angeles County, California, provided funding for pilot projects to provide legal assistance 

in eviction proceedings for individuals living below 80 

percent of the median income in rent-burdened ZIP 

Codes; 

(8) in 2019, the Cleveland City Council established 

a right to legal services provided through city-funded 

legal aid programs for all tenants in eviction proceedings 

who have children and live at or below 100 percent of the 

Federal poverty guidelines; and 

(9) in 2019, the Philadelphia City Council established a right to legal services provided through city-funded legal aid programs for all tenants in eviction proceedings who live at or below 200 percent of the Federal 

poverty guidelines; 

Whereas access to free legal representation has successfully 

helped low-income individuals in the United States preserve the necessities of life, including that— 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
7 

•HRES 960 IH 

(1) in New York City, during the first year of a cityfunded program to provide counsel in eviction proceedings, 84 percent of the tenants who received a lawyer 

remained in their homes (21,955 individuals in 7,847 

households); and 

(2) during the first 5 years of California’s Sargent 

Shriver Civil Counsel Act, adopted in 2009, 10 pilot 

projects served nearly 27,000 individuals in proceedings 

involving the loss of their homes, child custody disputes, 

or the urgent need for a family guardianship or conservatorship, with housing services alone affecting over 

73,000 household members; and 

Whereas the unprecedented health and economic crises 

caused by the COVID–19 pandemic are compounding 

and intensifying the legal needs of low-income individuals, including that— 

(1) millions more individuals and families will become eligible for legal assistance through legal aid programs due to lost jobs, furloughed employees, and medical debt; 

(2) more than 30,000,000 individuals filed for unemployment benefits during the period beginning on 

March 15, 2020, and ending on April 25, 2020; 

(3) millions of individuals are unable to make rent 

or mortgage payments and are at risk of, or are facing, 

eviction or foreclosure proceedings; 

(4) according to an analysis of over 13,000,000 

housing units nationwide conducted by the National Multifamily Housing Council, 31 percent of tenants failed to 

pay rent during the first 5 days of April 2020, compared 

with 18 percent of tenants who failed to pay rent during 

the same period in 2019; 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
8 

•HRES 960 IH 

(5) according to a survey completed in St. Louis, 

Missouri, 45 percent of renters do not have enough 

money in savings to pay rent for even a single month; 

(6) police departments across the United States are 

seeing dramatic increases in reports of domestic violence 

while, as of April 10, 2020, over 90 percent of individuals 

are subject to stay-at-home orders; and 

(7) a survey of the requests for legal assistance received by Legal Services Corporation grantees during the 

last two weeks of March 2020, compared with the requests received during the same time period in 2019, 

showed that— 

(A) Legal Services of Vermont had a 50-percent 

increase in requests for legal assistance; 

(B) Legal Aid of Arkansas had a 13.2-percent 

increase in overall requests for legal assistance and 

a 50-percent increase in requests for housing-related 

cases; and 

(C) Montana Legal Services had a 30-percent 

increase in demand for legal aid, with most cases involving evictions, domestic violence, consumer debt, 

and unemployment benefits: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives finds 

2 that— 

3 (1) the lack of counsel for low-income individ4 uals in civil proceedings diminishes the justice sys5 tem in the United States; 

6 (2) to effectively and efficiently address the na7 tional crisis described in paragraph (1), there must 

8 be a right to counsel in the civil justice system for 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
9 

•HRES 960 IH 

1 cases involving basic human needs, including health, 

2 safety, family, shelter, or sustenance; and 

3 (3) the Federal Government shares the burden 

4 with, and should support, State and local efforts to 

5 guarantee the right to counsel in the civil justice 

6 system and reduce the justice gap by providing 

7 counsel in appropriate civil proceedings without cost 

8 for low-income individuals. 

Æ 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS