in Newswire Published on October 18, 2017

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

Last Updated on May 8, 2018

Bairefoot et al. v. City of Beaufort, South Carolina et al.

Filed: October 11, 2017 ◆§ 9:17-cv-02759-RMG

A lawsuit claims the municipal courts for two South Carolina locales deprive indigent criminal defendants of their right to court-appointed counsel.

Defendant(s)

City of Beaufort, South Carolina Town of Bluffton, South Carolina

Law(s)

State(s)

South Carolina

Categories

Civil Rights

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:

“Beaufort County records indicate that municipal courts are responsible for 16.7 percent of the jail population in Beaufort County. Put otherwise, one out of six people in jail in Beaufort County is incarcerated on municipal charges only. None of them have public defenders. Records also indicate that over a 90-day period in early 2017, uncounseled convictions in Beaufort and Bluffton Municipal Courts resulted in over 50 jail sentences served in Beaufort County Detention Center. There was no defense attorney in any of these cases.”

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

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