Denial of counsel

Denial of counsel is the deprivation of legal representation where the Constitution or statute requires it — in criminal proceedings against indigent defendants, in immigration proceedings where representation is at stake, in administrative proceedings affecting liberty or status. Concrete forms include the structural underfunding of public defender systems to the point of effective denial, the holding of people incommunicado without access to counsel, and the imposition of barriers — geographic, financial, procedural — that prevent the realization of the right.