In 1963, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) that the Sixth Amendment gives all low-income defendants the right to counsel in criminal cases. A year later, the Court broached the issue of a similar right in civil cases claiming that "laymen cannot be expected to know how to protect their rights when dealing with practiced and carefully counseled adversaries.” See Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen v. Virginia, 377 U.S. 1, 7 (1964). However, in 1981, it declared that indigent litigants do not have the right to court appointed counsel in cases involving the termination of parental rights. See Lassiter v. Department of Social Services,, 425 U.S. 18 (1981).In the past decade, the movement towards establishing the right to counsel in civil cases has been gaining traction, and in 2006, the ABA issued a statement showing its support. Well, from the ABA's mouth to Governor Schwarzenegger's ears, and we get the first state law in California mandating legal representation for indigent civil litigants, otherwise known as the "Civil Gideon."
