Survey: U.S. trails in equal legal treatment of citizens

[QuintanarooBoy]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. lags behind western Europe in access to civil justice and legal assistance, according to an international survey released Monday that also raised questions over whether U.S. police forces treat all citizens equally.

The results of the survey by the World Justice Project, an advocacy group that promotes the rule of law, also signaled that some Middle Eastern countries continue to rank relatively low in certain areas, a key factor in the region's popular protests.

"Without the rule of law, medicines do not reach health facilities due to corruption, women in rural areas remain unaware of their rights, people are killed in criminal violence, and economic growth is stifled," William Neukom, the founder of the group, said in a statement announcing its second annual Rule of Law Index.

Earlier this year, the project polled 66,000 people across 66 countries, asking questions that covered eight areas including corruption, security, and access to the legal system. The researchers also interviewed 2,000 experts around the world to compile what they called a comprehensive picture of whether citizens believe their governments adhere to the rule of law.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/13/115729/survey-us-trails-in-equal-legal.html

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I wish I could say I was surprised.

[kath]

1. Shameful! But , as you say, not surprising.

Greatest country in the world, my ass! US is in the bottom half of both its regional group and its income group for all 8 factors except "order and security", where we are 6/12 for our region (western Europe + US &Canada) and 12/23 for our income group. For the other 7 factors, we are 11th/12 in our region for three of them, 10/12 for 1, 9/12 for two and 8/12 for one. Disgusting to see it all laid out.
The rankings and graphs for the US are on p. 103 of the report.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Tell me about it.

At this moment in time, my colleague and I are representing a former battered woman whose five children were removed by Child Protection. She hasn't worked in more than a decade and has no money. We've been working for free since October of last year and we're far from done. Without our voluntary services, it's uncertain whether Legal Aid would have the resources to fight to get her children back. New Jersey has a lottery system that assigns indigent clients to all attorneys but there is no standard of how much time and effort must be dedicated to the case (besides the minimum). The way The System is gamed, people without means don't get their justice.

[QuintanarooBoy]

3. I thought this was an LBN story

Apparently, the mods do not share that view. :shrug:

[kath]

4. well, it's NOT an editorial, If you moved it to GD more people would see it.

Very informative study.

[Zoeisright]

5. This country is rapidly turning into a third world nation.

Thanks to repukes.

[Igel]

6. It's a survey.

Not a study.

And the US apparently fell short on two sets of perceptions: The second in the article is whether all groups are treated equally by "the" police.

The first is a odder issue: Whether the US has guaranteed sufficient access to the civil courts. Not judged a right, there's no right to legal representation in a civil suit--you hire your lawyer. There's no right to an interpreter or to have materials translated. It's certainly not free.

This doesn't strike me as all that much different from the state of affairs in some other countries that are highly rated--except that since many of them aren't litigious, unequal access is likely to be perceived as less of an issue. If I don't know anybody that's been to (civilian) court, if nobody in my family has, if, in fact, there aren't all that many civilian cases, then it's not a big deal. Meanwhile, we enlightened souls in the US are far more litigious, and so "equal access" is more salient.

Then again, the US has small claims court--and that probably wasn't part of the survey. I'm also willing to be that there's a racial skew there, too.

Eh. It's the kind of report that I look at and think, "You know, I really don't care. I don't let their concerns substitute for my concerns, and will file this in my recycle folder right where it belongs."

[kath]

7. Kickety-kick. USA! USA! USA!