(Originally published by Los Angeles Times on September 1, 2026.)

You’re sued over a debt you don’t recognize. Or you’re facing eviction from the apartment where you raised your kids. The other side has a lawyer. You don’t.

For millions of Californians each year, this is how our civil justice system works.

In Los Angeles debt-collection cases, for example, just 2% of people being sued are represented by lawyers, while virtually every debt collector keeps one on retainer. In eviction cases, only 13% of tenants have attorneys, compared with 92% of landlords. The stakes in these cases are high. Yet unlike in criminal court, people facing these consequences typically have no right to a state-provided lawyer — so, if they can’t afford one, they go it alone.

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