Countless movies and TV shows include a scene where a police officer arrests an alleged criminal and reads them the Miranda warning. Actors playing the role of police officers say, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed.”

1. Study: Millions of
Americans Go To Court
Without a Lawyer
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2. Countless movies and TV shows include a scene where a police officer arrests an alleged
criminal and reads them the Miranda warning. Actors playing the role of police officers say,
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in
a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will
be appointed.”
This is because, in 1963, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that, in criminal cases,
states should provide an attorney for defendants who cannot afford to pay for their own.
But, according to a study published in the Social Science Research Network, over nineteen
million civil cases are filed each year at state courts and 70 to 98 percent of these involve
an unrepresented litigant.
Do-it-Yourself System
State courts handle about 95 percent of criminal cases in the United States. Since the cost
of hiring a criminal defense attorney ranges from $1,000 to more than $10,000, not
everyone can afford to hire a lawyer. So, it’s either the accused are assigned a court-
appointed counsel or a pro se litigation is often observed. This means that the defendant
represents themselves in court.

3. The Legal Services Corporation’s June 2017 report emphasized this situation. According to
their Justice Gap Report, in 2016 alone, 86 percent of civil legal problems reported by low-
income Americans got insufficient or no legal help.
The lack of state funds is one of the causes of unrepresented litigations. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 24 states have statewide public defender systems.
Importance of Legal Representation
In a study by the Chicago-Kent College of Law, researchers classified almost 200 tasks that
pro se litigants must accomplish in civil cases. They have to interpret the law, file motions,
negotiate settlements, and compile evidence to name a few. These tasks require intimate
knowledge of the law, something that most civilians do not have.
All these show that the American justice system has much to improve on to truly be
considered a fair court. Otherwise, justice will continue being out of reach for millions of
people.

4. Sources:
https://www.kellybramwell.com/
https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=15
72&context=fac_schol
https://www.lsc.gov/media-center/publications/2017-justice-gap-report
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2613648
https://theconversation.com/every-year-millions-try-to-navigate-us-courts-without-a-
lawyer-84159