Tonya Brito

Brito will explore the challenges faced by low-income defendants who owe unpaid child support and cannot afford attorney representation within the family court system. She will use interviews, court records, and ethnographic observations of child support enforcement hearings to compare the legal outcomes of parents who owe child support in two states: Wisconsin, which provides full attorney representation to defendants, and Illinois, which provides only limited legal assistance, such as informational websites and hotlines.