Addressing Class Disparities: Promoting Equal Access to Legal Proceedings

This chapter addresses another comparative justice issue—class disparities that limit access to the courts. The Constitution exacerbates these disparities: it authorizes bail, thereby favoring the wealthy over the impecunious; and it hasn’t been held to require assistance of counsel for all criminal defendants, also a matter of wealth disadvantage. Bail disparities have started to be addressed. There is, at present, no prospect of correcting nationwide wealth disparities for misdemeanor defendants, the chapter notes. This is an urgent shortcoming, given the collateral consequences of misdemeanor convictions.