Study finds 'stunning' justice gap in Virginia civil cases

[TexasTowelie]

On most days at Richmond’s John Marshall Courts Building, dozens of debt, eviction and other civil matters are posted on the general district court dockets.

The high volume of cases moves efficiently through courtrooms that often are largely empty — in large part because usually only the plaintiffs have a lawyer and often even the defendants do not appear and represent themselves.

It happens in the surrounding counties and across the state — just 1 percent of more than 500,000 civil cases handled in Virginia’s general district courts each year have lawyers on both sides, according to a new study of Virginia court data from April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016.

In the state’s juvenile and domestic relations courts, neither party has a lawyer in almost 90 percent of the 75,000 custody, support and other contested adult civil cases.

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/plus/study-finds-stunning-justice-gap-in-virginia-civil-cases/article_b3ad90aa-1d9e-516d-9a2f-8105df3c9f07.html

[underpants]

1. A friend of a friend represents the plaintiffs in eviction cases

When I first heard that she worked on such cases I asked if she was helping the people being kicked out - "Hell No, they don't have any money". Other than that she's a really nice person.

We volunteered last year at a facility to help families FAMILIES who ar homeless. They have to be certified as homeless by another organization- that means they aren't staying on a friend's couch with the kids in the host kids room, they are living in cars in the woods or in storage units.

A lot of people have gripes with their landlord so they don't pay rent. They are supposed to put the money in escrow at city hall but frankly I don't even know how that works. Most of these people don't have time or the jobs to go do that. One eviction and it's very hard to get another place. One woman with 3 jobs and as many kids was at this home and they presented her with apartments that were safe and clean and fit her budget. "I've already applied to all those and they said No". The organization was able to negotiate with the owners and got her in. They have a 90% success rate in families never needing their help or being homeless again.