Should Adults Suing on behalf of Minors Be Able to Proceed
without Counsel? The Requirement of a Litigation Entourage
Lisa Martin, University of South Carolina School of Law
Minor children generally are
deemed to lack the capacity to pursue their own claims for civil legal
relief. Instead, an adult, often a
parent or guardian, must initiate civil claims on a minor’s behalf as a “next
friend.” Adults pursuing their own civil
claims for relief have the right to represent their own interests in courts. When adults initiate civil legal claims on
behalf of minors, however, federal courts repeatedly have drawn a bright line,
holding that such adults must retain counsel or face dismissal of the
case. These courts have raised concerns
about the unauthorized practice of law, the legal incapacity of minors, and courts’
duty to protect the interests of minor parties. As a practical matter, requiring retention of counsel could foreclose
access to civil justice for low-income youth. Recognizing this tension, some federal courts have carved out exceptions
to the general rule and permitted adult litigants to pursue claims pro se on behalf of minors in certain
contexts. This article attempts to
reconcile these disparate outcomes. The article
evaluates the genesis and aim of the bright line rule, distills common
principles from developed exceptions, and articulates a test that could guide
the exercise of judicial discretion in individual cases. Finally, drawing from the literature on
expanding access to civil justice for adult litigants, the article explores the
feasibility and desirability of approaches that could offer increased
protection of minor litigants’ interests without requiring full
representation.
Gentrification and Urban Schools: A Story of Racial Segregation,
Displacement and Dissolution
Erika Wilson, University of North Carolina School of Law
Urban cities throughout
the United States are experiencing rapid increases in gentrification: the
influx of middle-class, usually white, residents into cities with large
minority populations. The influx of
middle-class gentrifiers is having two important but underreported impacts on
urban public schools. First, many
parents in gentrifying neighborhoods are opting out of traditional public
schools, instead favoring private schools or well-regarded charter schools. Consequently, traditional public schools and
low-performing charter schools are enrolling primarily poor and minority
students. Second, local officials
in gentrifying cities are enacting education policy reforms centered around a
return to neighborhood schools with the unstated goal of retaining the
burgeoning white, middle-class gentrified population with children. The net effect of these two phenomena is that
it results in gentrification causing new forms of social and spatial
differentiation in urban public schools that will likely increase the
vulnerability of poor and minority student populations. This paper explores these themes.