Скачать или смотреть Your right to a lawyer can cost you thousands

Legal representation is rarely free in U.S. criminal cases. On TV, police read people their Miranda rights and tell them they will be provided a lawyer if they cannot afford one. But in reality, most states try to recover the cost of lawyers — leaving people on the hook for big fees they can't afford.

Iowa takes these efforts to the extremes, imposing some of the highest fees in the nation — affecting tens of thousands of people each year — and charging poor people for legal aid even if they are acquitted or the cases against them are dropped.

And in one Mississippi court, most defendants went without any lawyer before indictment in 2022. The two local judges appointed lawyers for just 20% of the five dozen felony defendants who came before them in 2022.

✍️: Lauren Gill, Weihua Li & Caleb Bedillion; 🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project

#shorts #law #lawyer #legal #iowa #mississippi