Undervalued: An Assessment of Access to and Quality of Juvenile Defense Counsel in New Hampshire (2020)

This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation for New Hampshire’s youth is part of a nationwide effort to systematically review and provide information about the provision of defense counsel in delinquency proceedings. The purpose of a state assessment is to provide policymakers, legislators, defense leadership, and other stakeholders with a thorough understanding of children’s access to counsel in the state, to identify structural and systemic barriers that impede effective representation of children, to analyze how fee and cost structures inhibit young people’s access to justice, to highlight best practices where found, and to make recommendations that will serve as a guide for improving juvenile defender services for children in the state.