Poor Justice: How the Poor Fare in the Courts

by Vicki Lens

Overview

Poor Justice: How the Poor Fare in the Courts provides a vivid portrait and appraisal of how the lives of poor people are disrupted or helped by the judicial system, from the lowest to the highest courts. Drawing from court room observations, court decisions, and other material, this book spans the street level justice of administrative hearings and lower courts (where people plead for welfare benefits or for a child not to be taken away), the mid-level justice of state courts (where advocates argue for the right to shelter for the homeless and for the rights of the mentally disabled), and the high justice of the Supreme Court (where the battle for school integration has represented a route out of poverty and the stop and frisk cases illustrate a route to greater poverty, through the mass incarceration of people of color). Poor Justice brings readers inside the courts, telling the story through the words and actions of the judges, lawyers, and ordinary people who populate it. It seeks to both edify and criticize. Readers will learn not only how courts work, but also how courts sometimes help - and often fail - the poor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199355440
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/09/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Vicki Lens, PhD, JD, is Associate Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. She previously worked as a public interest lawyer, providing legal services to the poor. She conducts socio-legal research, using ethnographic and other methods to study how courts work.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Street Level Justice
One: The Rules of Engagement
Two: Welfare Fair Hearings
Three: Child Maltreatment Proceedings
Four: The Justice of Street Level Justice

Part II: Justice for the Many: Social Reform Litigation
Five: Courts as a Catalyst for Social Change
Six: Protecting or Coercing Persons with Mental Disabilities
Seven: Legal Advocacy for the Homeless
Eight: The Justice of Social Reform Litigation

Part III: High Justice: The Supreme Court
Nine: The Supreme Court
Ten: Race, Education and the Constitution
Eleven: Criminal Justice and Racial Profiling
Twelve: The High Justice of the Supreme Court

Conclusion
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Poor Justice is one of those rare books that is not only a riveting read, but also makes an important scholarly contribution. Vicki Lens's clear and engaging writing provides readers with a sobering analysis of how marginalized groups fare in the U.S. legal system. As a former legal services lawyer and social scientist, Vicki Lens shares an insider's knowledge with an outsider's critical eye." —Corey Shdaimah, PhD, LLM, Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work

"Lens draws upon her rich experiences as a lawyer, social worker, and ground-level researcher to illuminate the daily experiences of people without income in the courts. Like almost no one else, she knows unglamorous but essential corners of law, including welfare hearings, commitment proceedings for people with mental disabilities, and family courts. This text is a fine primer on law for the poor - and on the uses and limits of all kinds of law." —Felicia Kornbluh, PhD, MA, Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and Associate Professor of History, University of Vermont

"Vicki Lens provides an insider's human perspective on how the courts can in fact work for the least advantaged in our society. Poor Justice deftly combines ethnographic detail of courtroom drama with legal analysis and political critique. It makes for compelling reading and important scholarship about how the courts do indeed offer some basis for hope. This book deserves wide readership by students, scholars, policymakers, and citizens alike." —Sanford Schram, PhD, MA, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College, CUNY

"Professor Lens has written a scholarly and immensely readable analysis of justice - actually the lack of justice - for poor Americans. It is a powerful and irresistible call to action." —Robert Hayes, JD, Founder, National Coalition for the Homeless; President and CEO, Community Healthcare Network

From the Publisher