This court case is active
Everyone in America has the constitutional right to due process and to adequate legal defense in court, and children are no exception. This is why the ACLU of Washington today has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Office of Public Defense (OPD)— the state agency responsible for public defense in Washington— for failing to enforce minimum standards of public defense in Grays Harbor County. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the public defense services that juveniles in Grays Harbor County receive are constitutionally inadequate, and to declare that OPD has the authority to take the measures necessary to ensure the provision of constitutionally adequate services.
