I am, with his permission, sharing something that John Pollock, of the Civil Right to Counsel Coalition, found out and shared on the group’s list.

He points out that there has been debate about whether to talk about “civil Gideon” or “Civil Right to Counsel’

As he describes it:

“So just out of curiosity, I tried googling both “civil right to counsel” and “civil gideon”.  For “civil right to counsel“, the first 10 Google hits were all positive references.  For “civil gideon“, 5 of the 10 were negative articles about the issue.”  

As John suggests, “Gideon” has acquired a lot of baggage.

Personally, I tend to think about a “right to access,” often requiring counsel, but that does not necessarily have the same ring.