In a previous blog, we wrote about a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court was considering whether "deadbeat parents" have the right to an attorney when they are held in contempt for failure to pay child support. The high court recently issued its ruling in that case, saying that indigent civil defendants facing jail time for failure to pay child support do not automatically have a right to counsel.

The case that gave rise to the decision involved a father who had been sentenced to a year in jail for failure to pay child support. He had apparently told the trial judge that a recently kicked drug addiction had drained his money. In response, the judge sentenced him to a year in jail without making a finding about his ability to pay the child support.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who authored the majority opinion, said that Turner did not receive due process in his case, but that there is nevertheless no automatic right to counsel in such cases.

Under the 14th Amendment, states are allowed to provide less stringent protections to civil contempt defendants than to criminal defendants. He mentioned that providing an attorney to a noncustodial parent could create "asymmetry" in the proceeding, since both parties are often unrepresented. He also said, echoing the Solicitor General's argument, that other procedural safeguards could help in protecting defendants from wrongful incarceration, such as: using forms to obtain financial information, putting the defendant on notice that ability to pay child support is a critical issue; providing the defendant an opportunity to answer questions concerning his financial status; or requiring the court to make an express finding on the defendant's ability to pay child support.

Sources didn't indicate exactly how the ruling will impact state legal proceeding concerning, but one can imagine that there will now be a push to establish alternative procedures to ensure greater protections to indigent fathers owing child support.

Source: ABA Journal, "Supreme Court Finds No Automatic Right to Counsel in Child Support Contempt Proceedings," Debra Cassens Weiss, 20 June 2011.