NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - The judiciary in the United States is looking to India for tips on how to provide free legal assistance to its poor, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the slow-down in the U.S. economy has generated more civil cases such as foreclosure, consumer credit and evictions, but many litigants cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Yet, unlike criminal cases, the government is not mandated to provide free legal aid in civil cases.
More than 90 percent litigants in civil cases go unrepresented in New York State alone, said the report, with US authorities slashing the legal aid budget by $170 million from $2.5 billion in 2010.
“We have come here to understand the access to the justice system and intend to replicate India’s best legal aid practices,” Justice Fern Fisher, deputy chief administrative judge and director of New York State access to justice program, was quoted as saying in the report.
Fisher said she was impressed with India’s mobile justice system in the northern state of Haryana, where a bus travels to remote areas to provide legal advice to poor communities.
“I had this idea, but didn’t know how to implement it. On learning about this system already working in India, I decided to launch it in New York,” she said.
The mobile system will work for those who can’t reach the court in the city, where a trailer with law students on board will assist senior citizens or the poor who can’t afford lawyers.
