A Reappraisal of the Indigent\u27s Right of Access to Bankruptcy Proceedings

IN 1963, Robert F. Kennedy stated, To a serious extent, the scales of justice in this country are weighed against the poor \u27 One year later, the Office of Economic Opportunity was created, which helped balance the scale in some areas by providing legal service programs2 for indigents. Nevertheless, the enormous need of legal service for indigents has not and cannot be met under present programs.\u27 The 1964 legal service program failed to provide money for fees and court costs in judicial and administrative proceedings so petitioners who could not proceed in jorma pauperis were denied access to those proceedings. No person is poorer or in greater need of relief than the indigent who must resort to bankruptcy, who is in a hopeless bargaining position, totally destitute, and who has neither fifty dollars, nor hope of having fifty dollars within six months