From the President
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 25 No. 6 Pg. 0006 |
| Pages | 0006 |
| Publication year | 2020 |
DARRELL SUTTON
President
State Bar of Georgia
president@gabar.org
Addressing COVID-19 Impact on Civil Legal Services
This op-ed was previously published on April 23,2020, in the Daily Report. This reprint has been updated with current information.
BY DARRELL SUTTON, RICK RUFOLO, STEVE GOTTLIEB AND PAUL PAINTER
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take an unprecedented public health and economic toll on our state. Most of the conditions are known all too well: the deaths of more than one thousand of our fellow Georgians and illness to tens of thousands of others, devastating families and straining the capacity of our hospitals and other health care providers. With 1.8 million Georgia workers having filed for unemployment and state government facing a budget shortfall of at least $1 billion, the impact on the economy is like nothing we've seen in our lifetimes.
A less obvious result of the pandemic-because, understandably, the public health and economic crises have been the focus-is its dramatic effect on Georgia's justice system. In March, Chief Justice Harold Melton declared a statewide judicial emergency, essentially grinding the wheels of justice to a temporary halt, except for matters critical or essential to protecting the "health, safety and liberty of individuals."
That declaration has twice now been extended, most recently through June 12 and can be expected to remain in effect as long as other areas of government are closed. The delay of most in-person court sessions is a necessary action to protect the health of citizens who are parties in those proceedings, as well as attorneys, judges, court staff and jurors. But it also substantially delays the delivery of justice, especially the civil legal needs of low-income Georgians and others suffering the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Readers of this publication know well that unlike indigent defendants in criminal cases, citizens facing challenges in the civil justice system are not guaranteed representation in court. Those who cannot afford to hire their own lawyer must rely on legal aid organizations that are only partly funded by the government, or attorneys who volunteer to take their cases on a free or reduced-fee basis.
For Georgians, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society offers free civil legal assistance to low-income people in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties. For...
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