State Basic Access Act (CA)
Legislation
The California Model Statute Task Force was established by the California Access to Justice Commission in 2004. The Task Force was charged with considering the questions that would arise in legislatively granting a right to counsel in civil cases. The Task Force has now drafted two versions of such a model statute. The "State Equal Justice Act," distributed in November 2006, is a model statute implementing an across the board right to counsel in civil cases with only narrow exceptions. The "State Basic Access Act," distributed in March 2008, is a model for a narrower right to counsel which attaches only to certain high priority basic needs, defined in the Act as shelter, sustenance, safety, health, and child custody. In each case, the Task Force's mission was to think through the numerous questions involved in implementing a right to counsel, including scope of the right, eligibility criteria and issues, service delivery system, and administration of the new right. This draft represents the group's resolution of these and other issues and is intended as a starting point for use in any state considering implementation or expansion of a statutory right to counsel. The composition and work of the Task Force is described in some detail in "The California Model Statute Task Force," 40 Clearinghouse Review 176 (July-August 2006).
Please contact Clare Pastore, Task Force Co-Chair, at cpastore@law.usc.edu with any questions or comments.