court – Homeless Law Blog

August 16, 2017July 14, 2023

What if I can’t pay my tickets or fees and fines from criminal court?

We know that people who are homeless get charged with a lot of small crimes. Examples include loitering, panhandling, obstructing the sidewalk, trespassing, and littering. Very often, the penalty for these minor crimes is a fine—either a ticket or a fine imposed in court. The fine is supposed to be paid by a deadline.

If you don’t have the money to pay that fine and you miss the deadline, you can be charged with an additional crime which is usually called something like “failure to pay” or “contempt” in the local crimes code. This second charge might result in an additional fine or another kind of penalty such as community service or even jail time.

If the court system is able to communicate with you by phone or mail, which is not always possible when people do not have a permanent home, the payment office may contact you if you have had difficulty paying your fine. In that communication, they will likely tell you if it is possible to arrange a payment plan or an alternative to payment (such as attending a class or doing community service) if you cannot afford to pay. Being poor does not relieve you of criminal punishment; it just gives you an excuse for not paying the full fine by the original deadline. So if the court system tries to make arrangements with you, you are supposed to cooperate in forming a plan and fulfill your part of the arrangement. You may need to fill out forms or appear in-person for a conversation about your ability to pay.

You can ask for a payment plan or payment alternative as soon as your fine is assessed; you do not have to wait until they add a charge of non-payment and send you a second ticket. If you don’t give the court a way to contact you and you don’t reach out to the court before they come looking for you, these criminal charges will just stay on file until the next time you have an encounter with the police.

As these various charges and your lack of cooperation with the system mount up, so do the penalties that they can use against you. At some point, a police stop that might otherwise be uneventful will become a big deal because the officers will look you up and see that you have unresolved charges. They may take you to jail because of your outstanding charges.

In March of 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a letter to state and local criminal courts regarding unpaid fines. See 2023 updated version https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1580546/download. The DOJ urged the court systems to confirm whether someone is financially able to pay a fine before punishing him for not paying it. It also called on the court systems to honor Constitutional due process rights. The letter spells out specific ways to honor due process: giving people notice before punishing them, giving them alternatives to payment, and not suspending their license or requiring expensive bond as the only ways of avoiding jail.

If your court system is not acknowledging your inability to pay criminal fines, your ACLU or the public defender’s office might take action on your behalf.

The ACLU published a report in 2010 about how people suffer increasing punishments after not being able to afford their court fines. Subsequent to that report, state ACLU offices have produced helpful information tools for the public. Here are examples: Pennsylvania – Washington– Colorado – Ohio . Find your local ACLU affiliate to get instructions and other support if you cannot afford to pay a ticket or costs or fees assigned by a criminal court.

The National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) has a committee dedicated to the topic of Fines and Fees. http://www.publicdefenders.us/finesandfees Members of this committee have testified to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission about the terrible consequences that happen to people who do not have enough money to pay their criminal court fines. The Fines and Fees Committee welcomes input and offers resources to local public defenders. If you have a public defender who needs back-up to protect you from being jailed for not paying court fines, put that lawyer in touch with this group. You might like the NAPD’s Statement on Predatory Collection Practices. http://www.publicdefenders.us/files/NAPD_Statement_on_Predatory_Collection_Practices.pdf

April 2, 2008March 1, 2017

If you aren’t satisfied with a free lawyer, what can you do?

**** The information written here is not legal advice and the author of this blog is not your lawyer. These posts merely contain ideas to help you plan and organize your legal research and identify potentially helpful sources of law. ****

Regarding free lawyers in criminal cases:

Numerous agencies and organizations speak out against inadequate legal representation for the poor.[i] And there have certainly been lawsuits against individual public defenders as well as public defense systems for providing ineffective legal representation.[ii] All of these sources and the legal rights they champion are either about reforming systems or else about the right to sue a court-provided lawyer after he has botched a case. They do not tell what someone can do if he is currently getting bad help from a free lawyer.

Although someone paying a lawyer could simply fire that lawyer and hire a different one, an indigent defendant might not be able to change lawyers. It is always possible to ask the court appointment system or the public defender’s office for a replacement lawyer. But they may not have spare lawyers available and they will have to be convinced that the inefficient disruption of reassigning a case is worthwhile.

To convince any legal service provider that something is worthwhile, it is wise to describe that thing in its legal context. So, when trying to convey that a different lawyer should be assigned to a case, an indigent client has to be able to convey to the head of the court appointed program or the head of the public defenders office that his legal rights are being compromised by the current lawyer and that the lawyer is not fulfilling his professional obligations.

It is not sufficient to simply make those claims; heads of legal offices are not easily convinced by anyone, certainly not by every complaining client. You have to be able to show how the lawyer is violating your legal rights.

If you think that your Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel[iii] has been compromised,

explain what the lawyer is supposed to be doing: showing up for meetings, listening to your full story, collecting evidence on your behalf, figuring out how your actions differ from the crimes charged, comparing your situation to past cases, and generally contradicting the prosecutor’s claims in any legitimate way
provide proof of the lawyer’s failure to fulfill these obligations: copies of helpful evidence that he has not used, descriptions (or recordings) of meetings and phone calls in which he has ignored you, a copy of the court’s docket sheet showing that deadlines were missed, affidavits from witnesses who are willing to testify but have not been contacted by the lawyer etc…

If you think that your right to due process has been compromised,

demonstrate the characteristics of proper process: use copies of the defenders’ office’s brochures or Web pages to prove what they claim they’ll do for defendants; bring examples from the ACLU and the Southern Center for Human Rights cases and fact sheets to show what indigent defendants can reasonably expect from their lawyers;[iv] present the ABA’s Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System as recognized standards.
Provide proof that either the office’s standards or those principles identified by legal professional organizations like the ACLU and the ABA have not been applied in your case.

Only with clear direct standards and examples will you be able to convince your lawyer’s boss that in the middle of your case it is already evident that your legal counsel is not effective or adequate.

The Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System
American Bar Association[v]

1. The Public defense function, including the selection, funding, and payment of defense counsel, is independent.
2. Where the caseload is sufficiently high, the public defense delivery system consists of both a defender office and the active participation of the private bar.
3. Clients are screened for eligibility, and defense counsel is assigned and notified of appointment as soon as feasible, after client’s arrest, detention, or request for counsel.
4. Defense counsel is provided sufficient time and a confidential space with which to meet with the client.
5. Defense counsel’s workload is controlled to permit the rendering of quality representation.
6. Defense counsel’s ability, training, and experience match the complexity of the case.
7. The same attorney continuously represents the client until completion of the case.
8. There is parity between defense counsel and prosecution with respect to resources and defense counsel is included as an equal partner in the defense system.
9. Defense counsel is provided with and required to attend continuing legal education.
10. Defense counsel is supervised and systematically reviewed for quality and efficiency according to nationally and locally adopted standards.

If you are not satisfied with an attorney assigned by the legal aid office to help you in a civil case, what can you do?

The legal relationship between clients and legal aid offices is contractual, just like the relationship between paying clients and their private attorneys. And the attorneys who work in legal aid offices are supposed to have the same skills and desire to give their clients the best possible legal representation as the private-pay attorneys. If the lawyer is not providing adequate representation, a client’s best strategy would be to handle it like any other consumer complaint.

The legal aid office might have a formal process for filing complaints. If they don’t have a process, writing a letter is the best way to let them know that you want better service. The letter can be addressed to the lawyer on the case as well as the office supervisor. Like the complaint about inadequate criminal representation described above, this letter should identify exactly what actions have been unsatisfactory and what risks you predict if the lawyer is allowed to continue representing you in that way.

If the case is already over and you believe that you lost because of the lawyer’s incompetence or negligence, you can sue him for legal malpractice claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. In that case, it would be necessary to prove that the lawyer failed “to exercise the ordinary care of a reasonably competent attorney acting in the same or similar circumstances”[vi] and that you lost the case because of that failure. You can also file a professional ethics claim against a bad lawyer. Ethics claims are brought before the state attorney licensing office, not in court.[vii]

[i] The Southern Center for Human Rights has published many reports and articles about inadequate representation of criminal defendants http://www.schr.org/reports/index.htm; The American Bar Association published a comprehensive report after conducting hearings about court-provided criminal defense programs. The report is titled “Gideon’s Broken Promise.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has fought many important cases on behalf of poor people who did not get adequate criminal defense help from public defenders or court appointed lawyers. The ACLU’s Web site has sample court documents, fact sheets, and news stories.[ii] Cases about ineffective public defenders include Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963); Miranda v. Clark, 319 F.3d. 465 (9^th Cir. 2003); Powers v. Hamilton County Public Defenders Commission docket # 02 CV 00605 (S.D. Ohio 2005) (Brought by clients who were jailed after not being able to afford court costs.) For broad policy concepts, see the American Bar Association’s page about indigent defense systems. http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_aid_indigent_defendants/initiatives/indigent_defense_systems_improvement.html

[iii] Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980) and U.S. v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 (1984) are two cases that explain adequate and effective legal representation.

[iv] The ACLU no longer publishes a full site about indigent defense information, but your nearest chapter likely has lots of relevant fact sheets and legal pleadings. http://www.aclu.org/affiliates The Southern Center for Human Rights’ indigent defense information is at http://www.schr.org/reports/index.htm.

[v] The ABA’s Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System are available at http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/legalservices/downloads/sclaid/indigentdefense/tenprinciplesbooklet.pdf. The electronic document includes explanatory comments and references to related ABA professional standards.

[vi] 7A CJS Attorney and Client §327.

[vii] The American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility links to states’ legal ethics codes and attorney licensure offices. http://www.abanet.org/cpr/links.html

April 2, 2008March 17, 2011

How Can You Get a Free Attorney?

Courts provide free attorneys only in criminal cases, when defendants cannot afford to hire attorneys.[i] They do not provide lawyers for poor people involved in civil cases.

Legal Aid offices provide free legal representation in civil cases,[ii] but litigants have to find those legal aid offices on their own.[iii] Legal Aid offices come in many forms; they might serve a particular demographic group (for example, women) or work on a limited range of issues (for example disability law). They might be available through bar associations, law schools, social service agencies, or simply as independent non-profit organizations. Usually, both criminal courts and legal aid offices use the federal poverty guidelines[iv] to determine whether someone is eligible for free legal assistance.

In some jurisdictions, there is a pool of lawyers who work full time in the criminal court system and are paid by the court system to defend accused criminals who cannot afford to hire a private attorney. Those pools of lawyers are known as public defenders. In other jurisdictions, the court system contracts, either with the entire criminal defense bar, or else just the criminal defense attorneys willing to participate, to pay lawyers to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire their own attorneys.[v] In these systems, the lawyers’ names are on a roster and the court clerk simply assigns the next person on the roster as soon as a low-income criminal defendant is in need of representation. That kind of system is a court-appointed attorney system.

In many jurisdictions, the public defender’s office is backed-up by a court-appointed system when there are too many cases for the public defense team to handle.

[i] U.S. CONST. Amend. VI. This constitutional provision plus summaries of major cases interpreting it are at http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/amendment-06/index.html and at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment06/.[ii] The federal government established the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to fund legal aid offices that provide non-criminal legal services for indigent people throughout the country. The LSC Web site http://www.lsc.gov/ has a thorough online library of resources for self-help litigants and those seeking or suing legal aid offices. The site also has numerous reports and studies about free legal services for the poor.

[iii] Three electronic sources for locating your local legal aid offices are LawHelp http://www.lawhelp.org/, Justia http://law.justia.com/, and Findlaw http://www.findlaw.com/14firms/legalaid.html.

[iv] The Department of Health and Human Services publishes the federal poverty guidelines at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/index.shtml.

[v] The American Bar Association provides a chart showing how each state’s indigent criminal defense is structured. The chart also cites the state’s indigent defense statutes. http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/downloads/sclaid/indigentdefense/statewideinddefsystems2005.pdf The ABA also provides reports about state spending on indigent defense systems and sets for the fundamental principles for indigent defense systems at http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/sclaid/defender/home.html.

April 2, 2008July 17, 2012

Does it cost money to make a court case?

It does cost money to file a case in court though it does not cost money to file a response to a case whether it is a criminal case or a civil case. When someone comes in to file a case, the court clerk’s office charges a fee just for filing the initial document. Then there is a fee from either the court or the sheriff’s office for delivering a copy of the initial document to the opponent. After the first document in a case, each party in a case has to pay the costs of photocopying and mailing his documents to both the court and the opponent.

Then there are various kinds of costs associated with collecting and presenting evidence: Witnesses have to be paid. Scientists who analyze evidence get paid. Photographs and videotapes cost money to produce. Depositions, which are interviews with witnesses or opponents, have to be transcribed by a court reporter who has to be paid. Copies of pages from medical records can get pricey. The expenses go on and on, at least for people representing themselves or hiring private attorneys.

Litigants represented by legal aid offices, public defenders, or court-appointed attorneys do not have to pay these costs; the law offices will pay for everything. Litigants who do represent themselves in court can at least get the court’s fees waived if the court deems them to be in forma pauperis, in the form of a pauper, without the financial ability to pay the court’s costs. The courts require people seeking in forma pauperis status to file a motion declaring and demonstrating their poverty. Nearly every court clerk’s office and Web site has a fill-in the blank form to use for that procedure in their court. There is also a standard form for claiming in forma pauperis status included in virtually every publication containing the court’s rules. [i]

[i] Federal court forms for in forma pauperis motions are at http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/FormsAndFees/Forms/AO240.pdf. If that particular form doesn’t show up, go to the main forms page for the federal courts. http://www.uscourts.gov/FormsAndFees.aspx State courts’ Web sites can be reached from http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/index.html.

April 2, 2008August 28, 2015

Are there any rules about what you can say and do in court?

Just as there are numerous court rules for documents, there are also many rules for behaving and presenting in court. The basic understanding about courtroom decorum is that anyone who comes to court to argue a case will show respect for the court by demonstrating self-control, communicating precisely, and following the court rules. Even spectators have to behave according to court standards. Usually, this means being quiet, standing when the judge enters, and not interrupting the court proceedings. But in Minnesota, the Supreme Court ruled in August, 2015 that people cannot even enter the courtroom to watch a case unless they present photo identification. This ruling did not mention homeless people, but it will result in excluding some homeless people from watching cases.

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Not showing respect for the court, by talking out of turn or disregarding the judge’s standards, etc… can be seen as showing contempt for the court. If the judge does consider behavior as contemptuous, he can have an offending gallery member removed from the courtroom and an offending litigant fined or jailed.

In addition to basic decorum, rules of evidence are very important in the courtroom. These are the rules that govern what kind of proof each party can present. The limitation preventing irrelevant information from coming into a case is an example of a rule of evidence.

Another important evidence rule is the hearsay rule. In federal courts and in state courts there is always some version of a hearsay rule saying that witnesses in court can only testify about what they have experienced; they cannot testify about things they heard other people say.

There are some exceptions to hearsay rules. Words spoken by someone about to die can be presented in court by a surviving witness. Documents kept in the regular course of business can be presented as evidence on their own, without their author being present. Usually, there are between twenty and twenty-five exceptions to a court system’s hearsay rule.

Another important rule to know about is the character evidence rule which says that descriptions of a person’s character are not allowed to be entered as proof that he did what he is accused of doing. For example, when a defendant is accused of committing fraud (misrepresenting facts to someone who lost money relying on those facts) a witness cannot be brought to say, “Jimmy’s a liar. He lied to me about the condition of his lawnmower when I bought it from him.” That sort of testimony might get the jury to assume that the defendant committed the fraud just because this person from years ago knew of his lying in a completely different situation.

Because of the prejudices and misconceptions that exist about homeless people, it is necessary to listen for innuendos about laziness or dishonesty or irrationality that a court opponent might be trying to state as evidence of a homeless person’s character.

Dealing with the rules of evidence gets especially tricky because there is an understanding that an opponent might not mind if the other party wants to present hearsay or an unauthenticated object or a surprise. So, litigants are required to notify the judge, during a trial, when they object to the presentation of evidence that violates the rules.

They do this by immediately declaring something like, “your honor, I object to the prosecutor’s question because it invites the witness to talk about something irrelevant to this case.” Then, the judge makes an instant decision about whether the attempted evidence presentation would violate the rules. If the judge sustains the objection, it means that the evidence will not be allowed. If the judge overrules the objection, it means that the evidence will be allowed because it does not violate the rules.

COURT RULES
In order to properly communicate with the court and opponents in a lawsuit, you have to follow court rules.The four basic categories of court rules are:

Rules of Civil Procedure
Rules of Criminal Procedure
Rules of Evidence
Rules of Appellate Procedure

The rules are available from numerous sources:

The court’s Web site:

Federal http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/

State http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/info_court_web_sites.html

The state’s statutory code http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/listing.html
The Law Librarians Resource Exchange

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

If you are looking for print sources instead of electronic sources, look in libraries for paperback books of court rules or for the print versions of the statutory codes.

In addition to the official rules of court, every judge has standards for behavior in the courtroom. Some judges like the participants to introduce themselves in a particular way. Some judges don’t allow lawyers and pro se litigants to tell stories to set a scene. Some judges demand a conference in chambers to try to settle the case instead of having a trial.

To be sure that litigants satisfy these preferences, judges generally publish them in their biographies on the court’s Web site or mail them in a letter to each party. A litigant who does not live at an address might be able to receive court-related mail in care of a social service agency where he regularly receives services. As an alternative to that, or in addition to it, he can ask the judge’s clerk if the judge has any courtroom behavior preferences. A homeless litigant can also make arrangements to check-in with the judge’s clerk on a weekly basis to find out whether any scheduled events have changed or to see if the opponent has filed new documents, or if there is any other kind of news or activity connected with his case.

April 2, 2008October 14, 2011

Where do you find out how to write documents for court?

Legal forms can be accessed from http://forms.justia.com/. Another strategy for locating court forms online is to look for a link to “documents” or something similar on the court’s Web site. http://www.ncsc.org/Information-and-Resources/Browse-by-State/State-Court-Websites.aspx The Law Librarians Resource Exchange maintains an easy interface for locating state and federal court rules and forms at http://www.llrx.com/courtrules.

Documents filed in court should be typed and submitted on clean paper. This is not always a rule or a legal requirement, but it is an expectation. Courts will often accept handwritten documents as long as they contain the necessary information and are submitted to the proper office at the appropriate time. Lawyers, who are professionally obligated to show respect to the court, always file typewritten documents.

Filing neat and properly executed documents not only shows respect for the court, it also provides the opponent with the clearest possible presentation of your message.Generally, all court documents must have a caption on the first page and must be in specific order, depending on the purpose of the particular document. The caption usually tells who is suing whom and lists the name of the court, the date of the filing, and the docket number for the case. The docket number is assigned when the first document of the case is filed with the court clerk. On all documents filed after the first one, litigants must include that docket number so that their documents get filed with the same case.

There are lots of books full of sample legal forms. Law libraries will have those books. Typically, they can only be used as examples. It is rare to find a book’s fill-in-the-blank form that will be accepted by a court. Sometimes, court’s Web pages have sample forms and those can be filled-in online or else printed and filled-in. Since almost all documents filed in court become part of the public record, another way to see how to write documents is to copy and modify someone else’s pleadings.

To do so, go to the court clerk’s office and ask if there is a way to search for cases according to topic (negligence, assault, breach of contract, etc…) If there is a way for you to do that, allocate a few days in which you can dedicate yourself to looking for and reading through the documents filed in cases similar to yours. The clerk’s office will have coin operated copy machines or computer printers available.

No matter which resources tell you how to write a court document, you absolutely have to be sure the document complies with current court rules. Every court has rules about organizing and presenting documents. In fact, every court has its own rules in addition to rules from either the state or federal court system.

The rules tell how to notify an opponent that you are suing him, how to format court documents, what kind of information is required in court documents, how much time someone has in which to file a document, what options the opponent has for responding to that document and what kind of action the court will take regarding the document (i.e. whether the clerk will file it, whether a hearing will ensue, etc…).

April 2, 2008January 18, 2015

How do you start to connect legal research with actually proving a case?

Whether you are defending yourself in a criminal case or suing someone in a civil case, there are some basic steps to follow when making a case in court.

In criminal court, a defendant seeks to prove that the criminal charges do not match his actions, that faulty police procedures made some of the evidence inadmissible in court, and that the evidence which is presented in court does not prove him guilty.

Here is how legal research relates to those goals:

1. Read exactly how the crimes code defines that charge and think of ways to explain that your behavior does not match with that definition.[i]

2. Examine each item of the opponent’s proposed evidence against the rules of evidence.[ii] Investigate how the police obtained that evidence and how they handled it once they had it.

3. Look at the decisions in previous cases about that same charge to see how people successfully defended themselves and to see how the courts comment on the crimes code.[iii]

4. Having read the decisions in previous cases, show how your situation differs from the cases in which people were found guilty.

In a civil court case, such as a breach of contract or a negligent injury claim, a plaintiff generally seeks to prove that whomever he’s suing owed him a promise or a duty, that the promise or duty was not upheld, and that he has suffered harm or losses because of the opponents actions or inaction.

Here is how legal research relates to those goals:

1. Read books, legal encyclopedias, sample jury instructions, American Law Reports, and other explanatory sources to see how to depict the duty or obligation. Those sources should lead you to statutes, regulations, and cases. In case they are incomplete, look in the indexes to statutes and regulations and in case digests using every relevant word to be sure you locate all applicable law.
2. Using case references from those explanatory sources, read case decisions to get examples of what was necessary to prove that duties were breached.
3. Consult the big practitioner sets mentioned in the last text box (Causes of Action, Am Jur Trials, Proof of Facts) for help thinking about how to prove the extent of your harm or loss and how to prove your opponent’s connection to your harm or loss.
4. Look for books about the legal topics that apply to your case. There are helpful books about landlord-tenant law, contract law, criminal law, etc… All of these will be in the KF call number sections of libraries. If the bar association offers continuing education for lawyers, they might publish the practical training materials from those sessions and sell them to libraries. Three good Web sites that tell about proving legal issues are Justia http://www.justia.com/, Findlaw http://www.findlaw.com/, and Nolo Press http://www.nolo.com/.

[i] State criminal codes are available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_criminal_code. Federal crimes are available from the House of Representatives at http://uscode.house.gov.
[ii] Federal rules of evidence are at http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/. State evidence rules are at http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes2.html#evidence.
[iii] To find case summaries, use a state or regional case digest, such as West’s California Digest or West’s Atlantic Digest. Digests are organized in topic order. After locating summaries of cases in the digest, find the full-text of those case opinions by using the case reporter citation provided in the digest. If you don’t have access to digests and case reporters, at least investigate the criminal charges using a legal encyclopedia. Legal encyclopedias generally summarize the main case interpretations associated with legal topics.

April 2, 2008October 5, 2016

Representing Yourself in Court

Pro se means “for self” in Latin. In the legal system it is the term applied to cases in which someone represents himself, rather than having a lawyer. In almost every kind of court case, individuals have the opportunity to represent themselves. But there are all kinds of documents and actions that have to be done exactly right in a court case, not only to win, but even to keep the case alive through the numerous processes in formal dispute structure.

There is an impression that judges will be flexible and patient with people representing themselves in court. Judicial conduct codes require judges to be thoughtful and unbiased,[i] but they do not require judges to waive court formalities or provide unlimited time for people representing themselves to make their way through a case. In fact, judges trying to be unbiased might have to restrain themselves from being too helpful to litigants representing themselves.

Judges’ professional organizations have produced position papers and suggestions about keeping court fair, efficient, and accurate for self-represented claimants and also their opponents who are paying attorney fees. [ii] In sum, judges have no legal obligation to protect or assist people simply because they have come to court without a lawyer.

Many courts have a “pro se packet” or a similarly named segment of their Web sites where case filing instructions are provided for non-lawyers. [iii] The difference between those instructions and the ones the lawyers follow is basically in the way they are written, although they also tell how to notify the court that you don’t have legal counsel. Even though a pro se printing of the court’s requirements may be easier to read than the full-text of the court rules, the fact is that pro se litigants do not get to avoid court formalities simply because they have not hired a lawyer.

The court formalities and the strange ways that laws and cases are written make it very hard to independently navigate the legal system. New litigants often want to have someone explain a legal phrase in plain English or just summarize a whole long process in a few sentences. Those kinds of communications are forms of legal advice because they involve interpreting the law.

Sometimes, people who represent themselves in court cases find themselves asking for legal advice from the lawyer on the other side of the case. This not only puts that lawyer in an awkward ethical position,[iv] it also informs him about the case strategy. It is also unwise to ask court clerks, law librarians, and various legal system employees for advice about a case. While those people may have been tangentially involved in a lot of cases, they do not necessarily have the knowledge or information to analyze or plan a case. Only lawyers can give legal advice. Non-lawyers are at risk of being charged with the crime of practicing law without a license if they give legal advice.
The more pressing problems for the pro se litigant who seeks legal advice from a non-lawyer are:
1. that he will either get incomplete or incorrect guidance or else
2. that he will irritate that legal system employee who cannot give the desired advice. It is very annoying to be asked for help that you cannot give.

For assistance in planning litigation strategies, collecting evidence, and pleading a case in court, pro se litigants (and lawyers) can get a great deal of help from law library books in the call number ranges beginning with KF 8800 and KF 8900. That section of the library has books with sample deposition questions, instructions for writing and delivering an opening statement in court, ideas for asking questions of witnesses, recommendations for how to use evidence, tactics for effectively communicating with the judge and jury, and much more.

Some books are just about bringing a case in a particular jurisdiction, others are about succeeding with specific legal claims, and others teach techniques.

There are several large series’ of practice books that give especially detailed examples: Am Jur Trials, Shepard’s Causes of Action, and Am Jur Proof of Factsare the three primary sets of these. They include features such as checklists to follow for organizing a case to be sure that all of the necessary information is collected and provided to the court, examples of actual documents that have been filed in cases, lists of questions to ask in depositions before trial and cross or direct examination during trial, and suggestions for how to present evidence.

There is a Web-based resource called Self Help Support.org http://www.selfhelpsupport.org/ with a library about self-representation, several listservs, a newsletter about self-representation, and other background about handling a case without a lawyer. Note that this service is not designed for individuals representing themselves in court, but is “a virtual resource for people involved with providing pro se assistance or directing pro se and self help programs.” (from http://www.selfhelpsupport.org/about/) They do not have information about specific law topics.LawHelp.org http://www.lawhelp.org/ does have topical law information. The first screen on LawHelp lets users select the state within which they are representing themselves. Within each state’s page are the topical categories (employment, children and families, health law, veterans, migrant issues, etc…) with links to legal explanations and free legal services for each of those categories.

Findlaw has an ever-growing collection of articles about representing yourself in at http://public.findlaw.com/.

Here is a very useful guide listing each state’s various support services for self-help litigants. http://www.co.washington.or.us/LawLibrary/upload/Collaborative_State_JD_MLS_TaskForces_April2014.pdf Note that this list was compiled by librarian Laura Orr whose goal was to identify collaborations between law libraries, courts, bar associations, and other groups/

[i] Code of Conduct for United States Judges, available at http://www.uscourts.gov/RulesAndPolicies/CodesOfConduct.aspx.

[ii] Paula Hannaford-Agor, Helping the Pro Se Litigant: A Changing Landscape, Court Review (published by the American Judges Association) (Winter 2003) available at http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr39_4/CR39-4Hannaford.pdf; Here is an article called Pro Se Litigation: Best Practices from Judge’s Perspective.

[iii] Federal court Web sites are available through http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/. Look for a link to “documents” or “communications” that might link to instructions for filing a pro se case.

[iv] Forms for self-representation in state courts are available via the National Center for State Courts at http://www.ncsc.org/Topics/Access-and-Fairness/Self-Representation/State-Links.aspx?cat=Court%20Forms. The National Center for State Courts also has other helpful information about self-representation. Simply go to http://www.ncsconline.org/ and search within the site using the phrase “self-representation.” Also, take note of NCSC’s resource guide for self-help litigants. http://www.ncsc.org/topics/access-and-fairness/self-representation/resource-guide.aspx

[v] Rule 4.3 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits lawyers from giving advice to litigants who are not their clients. Link to states’ lawyer ethics material at http://www.abanet.org/cpr/links.html.

April 2, 2008May 16, 2008

What are the stages of a criminal prosecution?

1. Arrest– being taken into custody by police in order to be charged with a crime.

Who you interact with: arresting police officers and booking police officers

Basic legal rights at this stage: right to remain silent rather than responding to police questions and the right to seek a lawyer’s help for interactions with the police, the prosecutor, and the court. These rights come from the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and similar components of state constitutions, as interpreted by court cases.

The Sixth Amendment and links to cases about the right to representation are available at: http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/amendment-06/index.html
2. Arraignment– a pre-trial court appearance where the charges are put on record and the defendant pleads guilty or not guilty. No evidence is presented and no arguments are made. It is simply a first chance for the prosecutor and the defendant to each formally put their positions in writing. “He committed this crime.” “No I didn’t.”

Who you interact with: a hearing officer or magistrate, prosecutor, defense lawyer

Basic legal rights at this stage: the right to hear what crimes the prosecutor plans to prove. The state or federal rules of criminal procedure http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/ tell specifically what information has to be conveyed to a defendant at this state. If the criminal charges are serious enough that the defendant can be punished with imprisonment, the defendant has a right to have an attorney represent him in future court appearances and transactions involved with this case.

3. Preliminary Hearing – a pre-trial court appearance where the prosecution has to demonstrate that it has enough proof to demonstrate that the elements of the crime were met by this defendant’s actions.

Who you interact with: a hearing officer or magistrate, prosecutor, defense lawyer

Basic legal rights at this stage: the right to contest the prosecutor’s claim that he can prove the elements of the crime. The state or federal rules of criminal procedure tell how a defendant can respond to the prosecutor’s claims at this stage. Generally, there is nothing written at this stage. When the prosecutor finishes telling about his case, the defendant (or the defendant’s lawyer) tells what the prosecutor’s claim is missing. For example, if the prosecutor says that the defendant committed burglary-breaking and entering with the intent to commit a crime-but then doesn’t show how he can prove whether the defendant actually entered the place, the defendant can point out to the hearing officer that the prosecutor has not shown that he can make the case. Find the crime components, which the prosecutor has to present, in your state’s crimes code or your local ordinances at http://www.justia.com/us-states/ or http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes2.html#criminal_code.

See the Rules of Criminal Procedure http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/ to find out how the hearing is supposed to be conducted.

4. Indictment or Information– filing with the trial court a written list of the charges approved in the preliminary hearing.

Who you interact with: This is not a proceeding in which the defendant interacts with anyone. The prosecutor communicates with the court by submitting the document.

Basic legal rights at this stage: The right to receive a copy of the indictment or information. This is not always an automatic right; the document might be provided only when the defendant requests it from the court clerk. The state or federal rules of criminal procedure regulate the way this document is written and presented to the court as well as how and when the defendant can get a copy of the indictment or information.

Rules of Criminal Procedure http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

5. Discovery – parties collect information from each other. The prosecution is typically required to provide the defendant with copies of evidence and names of witnesses that are relevant to the case. The defendant is usually required to provide the prosecution with the results of mental or physical health exams related to the case and a list of experts and other witnesses.

Who you interact with: the prosecutor and witnesses for your defense

Basic legal rights at this stage: the right not to incriminate yourself and the right to know what evidence the prosecutor plans to use. The right against self-incrimination comes from the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and similar components of state constitutions as interpreted by cases. The right to full disclosure of the prosecutor’s evidence comes from the state or federal rules of criminal procedure.

Fifth Amendment http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/amendment-05/index.html

Rules of Criminal Procedure http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

6. Trial – elaborate court presentations in which the prosecutor tries to prove that the defendant is guilty of the crime and the defendant tries to prove that the prosecutor has not proved his claims.

Who you interact with: judge, jury, witnesses, prosecutor

Basic legal rights at this stage: right to a fair trial which comports with all of the rules of criminal procedure including the right to object to improper evidence, the right to present evidence contradicting the prosecutor’s assertions, and the right to cross examine the prosecution’s witnesses. These rights come from previous cases as well as the rules of criminal procedure.

To find cases about trial techniques, look under the topic “trial” in any source published by Thomson West Publishing. Books about trial techniques are in the KF 8915 Library of Congress call number range.

Rules of Evidence and Criminal Procedure http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

After the trial, a defendant who is found innocent is free to get away from the courthouse and the criminal justice system. A defendant who is found guilty will probably have a separate hearing at which his sentence (or punishment) is decided. In that hearing, the prosecutor tries to show why the defendant deserves the harshest possible sentence and the defendant tries to show that he deserves the lightest possible sentence. The ranges of possible sentences are published in each jurisdiction’s sentencing guidelines.[i]

Meanwhile, if the defendant can show that the judge made errors in handling the case, he can appeal the case to a higher court. The appeal is not an opportunity to prove the whole case again; it is merely a forum in which to show that the judge improperly allowed or disallowed certain evidence, that he demonstrated bias, that he failed to properly instruct the jury, or that he made other errors. When filing an appeal, it is usually necessary to request that the trial court postpone sentencing until the appellate process is over.

If the appeals process doesn’t work out in a convicted criminal’s favor, the last resort is to file a federal or state court habeas corpus petition asserting that the conviction violates federal laws or the U.S. Constitution.[ii] In this case, the defendant has to show that the prosecutor or trial judge did something that truly was illegal, for example: not providing defendant with a lawyer, allowing evidence from illegal search to be presented in court, being biased or prejudicial in judging, or misinforming the jury about appropriate sentencing options.

Who you interact with: Trial court judge, witnesses, and lawyers for sentencing; appellate court clerk to file appeal; district court clerk/judge for filing habeas corpus petition.

Basic legal rights at this stage: In the sentencing phase, defendants have the rights to: 1. attorney representation-even during the court’s pre-sentence investigation 2. read and contradict or explain parts of the pre-sentence report and 3. speak on their own behalf at the sentencing hearing.[iii] In the appeal, convicted criminals have the following rights: 1. representation by an attorney (court-provided for indigents) 2. have a copy of the trial transcript 3. access to a law library or other appeal preparation resources while incarcerated. The appellate rights also apply when petitioning for habeas corpus.

[i] Federal Sentencing Guidelines are at http://www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm. States’ sentencing commissions, which typically post the guidelines on their Web sites, can be reached through the National Association of State Sentencing Commissions. http://www.ussc.gov/STATES.HTM.[ii] The federal court system provides habeas corpus forms at http://www.uscourts.gov/forms/uscforms.html. Many federal district courts post forms for Habeas Corpus and other actions on their Web sites. http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks Volume 13 of Am Jur Pleading and Practice Forms has a broad assortment of habeas corpus forms. The Federal Judicial Center http://www.fjc.gov/ has an outline of the habeas process with references to all of the relevant laws. Search within the FJC site using the phrase “habeas corpus” the get the publication containing this outline “Habeas Corpus Review of Capital Convictions”

[iii] Lynn S. Branham, THE LAW AND POLICY OF SENTENCING AND CORRECTIONS IN A NUTSHELL, 7^th Ed, (West 2005).

March 26, 2008November 8, 2010

What kinds of information can you get when you do legal research?

Every branch of the government makes law.

1. Statutes are written by the legislative branch of government.
2. Cases are decided by the judiciary branch of government.
3. Regulations are made by the executive branch of government.

The notes at the end of each of these blog posts show examples of all of these kinds of law. Statutes, cases, and regulations are known as “primary law” because they are written by the government. There are also good “secondary” sources that are clearer to read and easier to navigate than the primary sources. It is usually a good idea to begin a legal research project by hunting through the secondary sources and, from those, getting leads for what to seek in the primary law.

Secondary sources include legal encyclopedias such as American Jurisprudence (called “Am Jur”) and Corpus Juris Secundum (known as CJS) which are both organized in alphabetical order by topic, just like most encyclopedias. At the end of each set is an index where researchers can look for a particular word or issue to find out where it fits within the main alphabetical topics of the set. Some states have their own legal encyclopedias. Other commonly used secondary sources are law journals which publish long detailed descriptive articles and have lots of footnotes leading to additional information. At public libraries, law journals might be available in social sciences databases for convenient searching.

It is almost always possible to identify at least one entire book about any legal subject. The public library might not have the particular books you need, but the county law library might have them. If you cannot get to the county law library, as if your public library can borrow it from another library which does have it. This procedure is called interlibrary loan. It is a service that public libraries typically provide to patrons with a library card. A homeless patron who, because of the lack of an address, does not have a library card can sometimes arrange an alternative method of obtaining interlibrary loan books though he won’t be able to remove them from the library.

The internet, as is obvious from this blog’s footnotes, has a wealth of freely available legal information. Nearly every state and federal agency, legislature, and court has its own Web site with its laws or case opinions.[i] Law libraries publish helpful online research guides with links to reliable Web sources.[ii] Bar associations and law firms publish authoritative introductions to legal issues.[iii] These types of entities are good sources of legal information.
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[i] Cornell Legal Information Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu/ and WashLaw Web from Washburn law school http://www.washlaw.edu/ and Justia http://www.justia.com/ are all reliable sources of state and federal law.

[ii] The law librarians’ resource exchange has a good collection of research guides http://llrx.com/. NYU’s research guides are at http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/research/researchguides/index.htm. The Washington State Library has research guides at http://www.courts.wa.gov/library/index.cfm. A terrific non-library site, the University of Pittsburgh’s JURIST has extensive scholarly legal information links organized by topic http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/subj_gd.htm.

[iii] The Texas Bar Association provides free pamphlets on a variety of legal issues at http://www.texasbar.com/template.cfm?section=pamphlets. The Michigan Bar’s Online Legal Help Center http://www.michbar.org/generalinfo/libraries/selfhelp.cfm “was created to help Michigan citizens find legal information to help them work better with their attorney, and to represent themselves in some instances.” The Illinois Bar has a Web site called “The Law and You in Illinois” http://www.illinoislawyerfinder.com/publicinfo/home.html which links to useful summaries about all kinds of legal transactions. The Oregon State Bar has explanatory guides at http://www.osbar.org/public/legallinks.html. The State Bar of Nevada has law topic brochures at http://www.nvbar.org/publications/pamphlets.htm. All of the states’ bar associations are accessible by clicking on a state name in Washlaw http://www.washlaw.edu/.

March 26, 2008April 5, 2011

What kinds of legal research sources are jails and prisons required to provide?

The U.S. Constitution has been understood to say that because people are entitled to represent themselves in criminal court[i] and to have due process in their interactions with the government[ii] they are entitled to legal information sources with which to represent themselves when they are incarcerated.[iii] The cases explaining why inmates should have access to legal resources do not specify exactly what kinds of resources have to be available. They say that inmates should have “tools” that enable them “to attack their sentences, directly or collaterally, and in order to challenge the conditions of their confinement.”[iv]

While law library access is one helpful tool, the courts more broadly require that somehow the prisons and jails confer “the capability of bringing contemplated challenges to sentences or conditions of confinement before the courts.”[v] When inmates who could not read and did not know English sued a prison for not providing them with this capability, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that a library full of standard English language law books would not make them capable of fighting their convictions or anything about their incarceration.[vi]

[i] Cases have stated that the Sixth Amendment, providing for a right to counsel, also provides criminal defendants with the choice of representing themselves. Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 95 S.Ct 2525 (1975). An article showing how this principle has been followed throughout the country is John Herbrand, Accused’s Right to Represent Himself in State Criminal Proceedings, 98 ALR 3d. 13 (1980- updated through 2006).

[ii] Cruz v. Beto 405 U.S. 319 (1972) (about prisoners’ rights to file grievances about prohibitions against their religious practices in prison); Johnson v. Avery 393 U.S. 483 (1969) (about prisoners’ rights to get assistance with legal document preparation from other inmates); Buchalter v. NY, 319 U.S. 427 (1943). (“action by a state through any of its agencies must be consistent with the fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of our civil and political institutions, which not infrequently are designated as the ‘law of the land.’ Where this requirement has been disregarded in a criminal trial in a state court this court has not hesitated to exercise its jurisdiction to enforce the constitutional guarantee.”)

[iii] Cases declaring that jailed criminal defendants have access to law libraries in jail include Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491 (1977) and Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 116 S.Ct 2174 (1996). See also William Lindsley, Penal and Correctional Institutions, 60 Am. Jur. 2d §68 (updated through 2007). Section 68 is about “inmates’ access to courts, legal assistance, and materials.”

[iv] Lewis v. Casey at 518 U.S. 355 and 116 S.Ct. 2182.

[v] Id. at 356, 2182.

[vi] Id.

March 26, 2008May 16, 2008

Where can you go to conduct legal research?

The general answer to this question is, go to the nearest law library. The most likely law library to be accessible to the public is a county law library, but those are usually only located in the county seat. Some law schools allow the public to use their libraries for independent legal research. But because their purpose is to assist faculty and students with serious scholarly research, rather than to help the public with practical case research, they do not always have the kinds of resources that public patrons would want.

Public libraries often have basic state laws as well as small collections of books that are written for non-lawyers to use in handling legal transactions and court cases. If going to the library is impossible, inquire about getting internet access at community centers or social service agencies. We have leads many good internet sources throughout this blog because we anticipate that accessing those is likely to be more convenient than getting access to a thorough collection of law books.

March 26, 2008January 18, 2015

If you can’t get out on bail and are later proved innocent, can you get paid back for the time you spent in jail?

When a judge makes a bail decision, he is obligated only to use his best discretion in deciding whether the defendant should be released. He has to rely on the prosecutor and defense attorney to be thorough and accurate. It is very hard for individuals representing themselves to collect proof of tasks that the judge and lawyers might have failed to do. Still, there is research material that a person who was wrongly jailed and wrongly denied bail might want to investigate.

Clearly, a person in jail awaiting trial can suffer losses of money and experience. He might lose pay for missing work or he might lose the job altogether. If he lived in a public place or even in a shelter, he might have lost all of his possessions during the time that he was in jail and unavailable to watch his stuff. If he missed making payments on something because of being in jail, the item might have been repossessed.

He could miss a job interview or someone’s birthday or some other important event. He might have gotten housing if he’d been at a meeting that he couldn’t attend because he was held in jail, waiting for a trial. These losses might not have as much significance if that person is found guilty at his trial and has to spend a long time in prison anyway. But, if the person is found to be innocent, then the justice system has cost him truly unnecessary losses.

Only after the trial is that person in a position to have full proof of his losses because only then, when a court of law has held that he was innocent of the crime he was charged with, can he definitely state that had it not been for the bail denial, he would have been able to continue that job, get into that housing, save his possessions, etc… So, it is in an entirely separate case from his criminal trial that he would seek to make a claim for financial damages.[i] And, like all claims for money damages, the case would be in civil court, rather than criminal court.

There is not a body of legal literature about cases in which innocent people who were denied bail successfully sued the court for damages. This does not mean that there have never been any successful claims like this, but closest body of law is about cases in which people were wrongly convicted and later found innocent.[ii] Nevertheless, here is how a claim might play out:

Being a civil case involving an individual against a government entity, i.e. the court that denied bail, this claim for damages arising from unnecessary jailing would be based on constitutional rights. Likely claims would be violations of Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to life, liberty, and due process.[iii] It has been said that, “In convicting an individual of a crime, the government reaches out to deprive him of life, liberty, or property by execution, jail, or fine.”[iv]

Years ago, a Lawyer-in-Chief of the Office of Professional Responsibility at the U.S. Dep’t. of Justice declared that “There is no other department [of government] that is viewed with comparable terror or fear, because there is no other department that by itself can put you in jail or take your life, liberty or property away from you.”[v] And, a court deciding a case in which a lawyer did not seek pretrial release for two indigent clients firmly stated that, “Any form of pretrial incarceration infringes on an accused’s liberty interest in a powerful and obvious manner.”[vi]

Some people present their due process claim along with a claim that the court violated rules about bail or release on recognizance.[vii] For this research, the innocent person, denied bail, would find the state or local rule of criminal procedure delineating how bail decisions are to be made and would show how that procedure was not properly applied in his case. Then, this unnecessarily jailed claimant would read Title 42 of the U.S. Code §1983[viii] which is about money damages for civil rights violations, and decide whether to include that kind of claim in the case.

NOTE: If you are in jail and are representing yourself in court, you might like The Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook published by the National Lawyers Guild.

[i] Notice that this question and answer are only about financial damages. It is definitely possible to appeal a bail decision in the criminal court system. The procedure for appealing a bail decision is established in criminal court rules. Those rules, and possibly forms to use for the appeal, are likely to be published in the local and state statutes, in individual books titled “(Name of State) Rules of Court”, and in attorney practice manuals for that jurisdiction. The clerk of the criminal court might even have an appeal packet available upon request.

[ii] See the National Registry of Exonerations to read about people who were eventually freed after being wrongly convicted of crimes. For a comparison of cases from throughout the country, See Annotation, Application of State Statute Providing Compensation for Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration, 34 ALR 4^th 648 (1984 updated through 2006). In addition to “wrongful conviction,” a related research term for locating law on this topic is “false imprisonment.”

[iii] U.S. CONST. Amend. V, XIV. “No person shall ….be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

[iv] David. P. Currie, Positive and Negative Constitutional Rights, 53 U. Chi. L.Rev. 864, 874 (1986).

[v] Elkin Abramowitz and Peter Scher, The Hyde Amendment: Congress Creates a Toehold for Wrongful Prosecution, 22 Champion 22 (1998). Available at http://www.nacdl.org/CHAMPION/ARTICLES/98mar04.htm quoting from the book MAIN JUSTICE by Jim McGee and Brian Duffy.

[vi] Matter of Rosen, 470 A.2d. 292 (D.C. 1983).

[vii] The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are at http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/. State Rules of Criminal Procedure are at http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes2.html#criminal_procedure. Note, however, that a criminal statute might say that bail or other pre-trial release is impossible in connection with a particular crime.

[viii] 42. U.S.C. §1983.

March 26, 2008December 29, 2020

Is it possible to get out on bail if you have no money?

The purpose of bail is to ensure that defendants will return to court for trial after having been formally accused of a crime at a preliminary hearing. The bail agreement between a court and a defendant establishes a defendant’s promise to pay the court a high amount of money which will then be returned to the defendant when he returns for the hearing.

A better assurance that the defendant will be present for trial is to simply keep him in jail, but that contradicts the notion that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.[i] In many states, money does not have to be posted; defendants can be released until trial “on their own recognizance.”[ii] Even in those jurisdictions though, if the court believes either that the defendant is likely to not return for trial or to pose a threat to the public, bail may be imposed to remind the defendant to behave and return for trial or else risk staying in jail until the trial.[iii]

For a someone who is homeless, the reasons for denying bail, such as: no money to put down as a guarantee, no community roots like a job or house, and no way to track him down are the same issues that can be argued in favor of releasing him on his own recognizance. The fact that a homeless defendant has no money with which to post bail also means that the defendant does not have money to pay for transportation out of the jurisdiction. Not having the responsibilities of a job or house would seem to leave a defendant flexible enough to abscond, but if the defendant has already been living in the jurisdiction without those roots, there is reason to believe that he has no place else to go. Similarly, the lack of an address and the defendant’s status as homeless provide even more routes by which to track him down than anyone who does have a permanent address because people who are homeless tend to be out in public areas and to repeatedly access particular social services sites.

[i] The presumption of innocence is described and analyzed very thoroughly in 1 Wayne R. LeFave, et al., Criminal Procedure, §1.4 part (d) “Accusatorial Burdens” (2d. Ed. Current through 2006 update.) In support of their analysis, the authors of that authoritative treatise cite to the following U.S. Supreme Court cases: Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513, 525-26, 78 S.Ct. 1332, 1341-2 (1958); Taylor v. Kentucky, 436 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 1930 (1978); Bell v. Wofish, 441 U.S. 20, 533, 99 S.Ct 1861, 1871 (1979), and Watts v. Indiana, 338 U.S. 49, 54, 69 S.Ct. 1347, 1350 (1949). For a detailed explanation of the constitutional right to be released on bail, see 8 CJS Bail §20. (CJS is Corpus Juris Secundum, a legal encyclopedia.)

[ii] Lynn C. Cobb, Annotation, Application of State Statutes Establishing Pretrial Release of Accused on Personal Recognizance as Presumptive Form of Release, 78 A.L.R.3d 780 (1977).

[iii] 1 Wayne R. LeFave, et al., Criminal Procedure, §1.4 Part (f) “Minimizing the Burdens of Accusation and Litigation” (2d. Ed. Current through 2006 update.); Lynn C. Cobb, Annotation, Application of State Statutes Establishing Pretrial Release of Accused on Personal Recognizance as Presumptive Form of Release, 78 A.L.R.3d 780, § 2(a) (1977).