Class Action: Beaufort, Bluffon (SC) Municipal Courts Deny Counsel to Poor Residents

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The city of Beaufort and the town of Bluffton in South Carolina are the defendants in a proposed class action that alleges the locales’ municipal courts unconstitutionally deny poor criminal defendants of their right to counsel, with many indigent residents allegedly being jailed each week, the lawsuit claims, without having a court-appointed lawyer handle their case or “ever even being advised of their right to counsel.” The suit’s three lead plaintiffs, who the case says have been charged in municipal court with crimes ranging from shoplifting to third-degree battery, allege the respective judges whom they faced never advised them of their right to counsel, nor appointed them public defenders. Each plaintiff was incarcerated, and claims they never spoke to an attorney throughout their cases. From the lawsuit:

 The proposed civil rights class action alleges violations by the defendants of the Sixth and Fourteen Amendments of the Constitution.