 |
Photo by Erica Nesbitt, '09 |
Whitworth's 2008 Constitution Day Lecture this fall featured Michele E. Storms, executive director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law Program for the University of Washington Law School. During her lecture, "What Does It Take to Guarantee Access to Justice for All?," Storms asserted that while the U.S. Constitution guarantees fair legal proceedings for all citizens, in reality, most low-income families don't have access to civil legal aid. Unlike criminal legal trials, defendants in civil legal trials don't have the right to counsel. Low-income families' lack of access to legal aid results in ignorance of and distrust in the legal system and can allow injustice to go unchecked, she said.
| "Low-income families' lack of access to legal aid results in ignorance of and distrust in the legal system and can allow injustice to go unchecked." |
"Of course, if you're getting help from the legal system, you're going to view it as effective and equal for everybody," Storms said. "But with 88 percent [of low-income families] not getting any sort of help, either because they don't know about it or they're denied, their view is that the system doesn't work."
Storms praised Washington for being the first state to fund civil legal aid for low-income families and pointed out that Spokane has a civil legal aid agency.
Listen to Storms' lecture 
|
