August 6, 2011 Civil Gideon: An Idea Whose Time Should Not
ComeBy Lawrence J. Siskind The U.S. Supreme Court recently
revisited the heavily disputed territory of "Civil Gideon" --
the doctrine delineating when, if ever, indigent civil litigants
are legally entitled to counsel appointed and paid for by the
state. The name "Civil Gideon" comes from the 1963 landmark
decision of Gideon v. Wainwright, which held that the Sixth
Amendment grants indigent defendants the right to state-
appointed and state-paid counsel in criminal cases. In Turner v.
Rogers, the high court confronted the case of Michael Turner, a
deadbeat dad with a drug problem. After repeatedly failing to
pay child support, Turner was sentenced to serve a 12-month
sentence for civil contempt. At the contempt hearing, Turner did
not have counsel. Neither did Rebecca Rogers, the mother of
their child, who sought the hearing and asked the court to
confine Turner because of his pattern of nonpayment. In its 5-4
decision, the court vacated the South Caro