Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Litigation

Publication Date

1977

Abstract

Chief Justice Warren Burger has been complaining for over a decade that "from one-third to one-half of the lawyers who appear in the serious cases are not really qualified to render fully adequate representation." We may quibble about his statistics, but we cannot deny the substance of the Chief Justice's complaint. There is a significant amount of ineffective assistance of counsel, and that situation is intolerable, both professionally and constitutionally. Under Canon 6 of the Code of Professional Responsibility, "A lawyer should represent a client competently," and under the sixth amendment, criminal defendants are entitled to the effective assistance of counsel.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.