Top New York Judge Urges Greater Legal Rights for the Poor.

New York's chief judge called on Monday for a new guarantee of a lawyer for poor people in civil cases, like suits over eviction and other disputes where basic needs are at stake, pushing the state to the forefront of a national effort to expand the right to representation for the indigent. In a speech in Albany, the chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said his proposal, the first such plan by a top court official in New York, reflected a commitment by the state's courts ''to bring us closer to the ideal of equal access to civil justice'' that he described as one of the foundations of the legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]