You don't often hear someone complain that the world doesn't have enough lawyers, but that may be the case in some rural areas. The State Bar of Georgia reports more than 28,200 actively practicing lawyers in the state, but roughly 69 percent of them practice in the core Atlanta metro counties. The remaining 8,700 lawyers are sprinkled across the other 154 counties, 35 of which have fewer than four practicing attorneys, Péralte C. Paul of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. While doctors are often given incentives to practice in rural areas out of school, lawyers share little of that help.
The shortage reflects a long-standing problem in rural Georgia: "Dwindling populations and the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs over several decades, coupled with a lack of economic diversity, leave little room for a thriving services sector," Paul writes. Harvey Newman, a public management and policy professor at Georgia State University, explained, "As populations continue to decline in many rural parts of the state, what they have is such a small population that they don’t support much economic activity of any kind." new lawyers, who on average graduate with loans of $71,400 to $91,500, tend to cluster in the state’s metro areas, which boast a more dependable stream of clients.
The recession has only worsened the rural poor's lack of access to government-funded legal aid, an attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program told Paul. The 39-year-old organization provides legal aid to low-income Georgians outside of metro Atlanta. Cost of representation also remains a significant barrier to many rural Georgians. “Cost is always an issue, and it’s certainly become an issue in a bad economy,” Josh Bell, an attorney in Whigham in South Georgia, told Paul. (Read more)
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