Is a defendant in a paternity action entitled to appointed counsel?

Where a legal proceeding may result in an infringement of a defendant's personal liberty, there is clearly a right to counsel, regardless of whether the action is labelled civil or criminal. A paternity proceeding is obviously a civil suit which cannot result in the deprivation of the defendant's liberty. The only possible consequence of such an action is the imposition of a financial obligation. While the majority focuses on the collateral possibility that a defendant might be jailed for his refusal to pay a support order arising from a paternity suit, such a criminal prosecution, at which the indigent defendant Would be entitled to appointed counsel, is a totally separate proceeding and not an inevitable sequel to the paternity action itself. Persons under the obligation of a child support order who are truly indigent are rarely jailed. Criminal prosecutions which may result in confinement, like contempt proceedings in civil nonsupport cases, are usually reserved for cases of wilful noncompliance with a court order or wilful failure to support, By those having the ability to do so. (Nutter v. Superior Court (1960) 183 Cal.App.2d 72, 75, 6 Cal.Rptr. 404; Pen. Code, 270.)