"Americans like to think of the law as a great equalizer, the courts as instruments of justice in which the scales are balanced, where every party has an equal chance to make a case and win a judgment. We like to think, as Bob Dylan wrote, “that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom.”

The reality is that the scales are weighted against anyone who goes into court without a lawyer. That’s why the Supreme Court has ruled that if a defendant in a criminal case cannot afford a lawyer, a public defender will be appointed to represent him or her. Without a boost from an attorney, most people simply cannot climb the ladder of law."

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