The view that every person who comes before the court as a defendant should have access to legal representation was not always embedded in our legal system. English common law made no such provision, and in the United States it was only in 1963 that the right to counsel became generally available to criminal defendants charged with serious crimes. This entitlement to legal counsel was as long overdue as it was crucial, for the court is an arcane institution whose rules and procedures, quite apart from the complexities of the law with which it engages, are likely to be bewildering to outsiders. Moreover, those who come before the court as defendants come before an institution with enormous strategic, personnel, and financial resources and, unless there is provision for someone to be at their side – indeed on their side – both to guide them through its intricacies and to some extent to counterbalance its power, defendants will almost inevitably be at a substantial disadvantage.

Of course, the inequality of power between accused and accuser (that is, between the defendant and the prosecutor) may remain even if defendants have legal representation, and this is so because many who come before the court lack the wherewithal to obtain “strong” representation, and in some cases, any representation at all.