Those who can afford it get necessary legal assistance; those who can’t get potluck!

 Kudos to the Detroit Free Press for broaching a topic that has long been a concern of ours: Those persons without financial means don’t get the legal assistance they deserve. 

Former TV newsman and now private investigator Bill Proctor, in an op-ed piece, pointed out that former President Donald Trump has spent $50 million in legal fees on just one losing civil case so far. He went on to draw attention to the “stark contrast between Trump and those who are struggling, and must accept whatever the justice system throws at them.” 

On a more local basis, MLive carried a feature story this week, pointing out that the new law firm for Ottawa County, in which I reside, made nearly $750,000 last year in providing legal services for the county! 

And, on a personal level, I can report that HFP needed specialized legal services to prepare a document last year. The attorney that we retained did an excellent job, and provided the exact service that we needed. But, she billed $750 an hour! 

HFP works with the incarcerated…not those who have all kinds of money to avoid going to jail. The men and women on our client list were never able to hire big gun lawyers. 

As Proctor points out in the Freep: “Without money and influence, Americans facing criminal charges often lose the game they are forced to play.” He points out that they often get represented by struggling, inexperienced court-appointed lawyers because they just don’t have the finances to support a good defense.   

In the mid-1990s, when I was working to help free the wrongly convicted Maurice Carter, I learned that his court-appointed attorney never even met with him until the morning of the trial! This was a man with a reputation of falling asleep in the courtroom. Maurice was found guilty. 

In 2007, when I was trying to help another indigent, wrongly convicted Black man on death row in Texas, I learned that there was such a shortage of defense attorneys that one poor sucker facing a possible death sentence was assigned a specialist in real estate! 

It’s not fair, and we agree with our friend Proctor’s appeal for “long-needed reforms and improvements to better protect those of us who aren't rich and famous!” 

Amen and Amen!

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