RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A new study shows that just 1 percent of more than 500,000 civil cases handled in Virginia’s general district courts each year have lawyers representing people on both sides.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the study found that plaintiffs are represented by lawyers in more than half the cases, while defendants are represented in very few. Plaintiffs with lawyers won 60 percent of the cases when the defendant did not have a lawyer. Plaintiffs won just 20 percent of the cases when both parties had lawyers.
The study also showed that where poverty rates are high, so is the rate of litigants who don’t have lawyers.
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The study was conducted by The National Center for State Courts. It reviewed Virginia court data from April 2015 through March 2016.
“When only one side has an attorney and the other side doesn’t, then the system becomes dysfunctional, it’s a stilted playing field,” said John Whitfield, executive director of Blue Ridge Legal Services, which provides civil legal help to low-income residents.
“Despite the judges’ best efforts to be fair, they cannot possibly make up for the lack of counsel,” he said.
The state’s 125 general district courts handle issues up to $4,500 and share jurisdiction with the state’s circuit courts for controversies between $4,500 and $25,000.
“People think there’s a right to a lawyer in civil cases and there isn’t,” said Martin Wegbreit, director of litigation with the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society in Richmond. And, he said, “People don’t understand how much difference a lawyer makes.”
Debt cases make up the bulk of civil cases in general district court, but there are also many eviction cases in Richmond. The study found that in the year ending March 31, 2016, tenants lost eviction cases against landlords 62 percent of the time if they did not have a lawyer, but only 34 percent of the time if they were represented.
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