TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Chief Justice Jorge Labarga says he wants to find help for poor and middle-class people confronting non-criminal legal issues ranging from divorce to foreclosure.
The state Supreme Court's leader outlined the effort Wednesday during the annual pre-session legislative meeting sponsored by The Associated Press.
While indigent criminal defendants are entitled to legal representation by a public defender or court-appointed lawyer, civil litigants have no similar right. Labarga has appointed a 27-member panel to study the situation and make recommendations in a final report that's due in 2016. The Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice — whose members include judges, lawyers, legal aid providers and business people — held its first meeting Jan. 16.
Legal aid groups offer assistance to poor people in some cases. Labarga says those in the middle-class make too much money to qualify but often not enough to afford a lawyer.
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