Rural America lacks lawyers, and only a few states are addressing the problem; go 100 miles for a will or a divorce?

In 2013 David Gilbertson, then chief justice of South Dakota, posed
with a sign he ordered. (New York Times photo by Matthew Staver)

"You're going to need a lawyer for that," pretty much everyone says at some point in time. But in rural areas, that lawyer is a lot harder to find: "Despite efforts in recent years by a handful of states, universities and legal associations to ease the problem, there remains a glaring lack of lawyers in many far-flung places," reports Elaine S. Povich for Stateline. "This leaves those areas and their residents without easy access to legal advice for family issues, wills, estates and property transactions, in addition to any criminal or civil legal disputes. Residents often have to drive long distances to another city or rely on remote video meetings."

Sam Clinch, associate executive director of the Nebraska State Bar Association, which has few lawyers outside Omaha and Lincoln, told Povich, “That’s an access problem when you are asking someone to drive 100 miles or more to do a simple will or a simple divorce." Povich notes, "Nebraska has a small state loan repayment program to help a few attorneys who agree to practice rurally; in a decade, the program has placed 39 lawyers in rural parts of the state."

Povich reports, "Some 40% of all counties in the United States — 1,272 of 3,141 — have fewer than one lawyer per 1,000 residents, so few that they are considered 'legal deserts,' according to the most comprehensive survey of attorneys available, conducted by the American Bar Association in 2020. . . . Nationwide, there are roughly four lawyers for every 1,000 residents, but those numbers don’t mean much because so many lawyers are concentrated in cities. . . . South Dakota is one of the few states where the legislature and governor agreed a decade ago on a plan to attract lawyers to rural areas." The state has few attorneys outside urban centers such as Rapid City and Sioux Falls. 

Povich notes that South Dakota's program is an exception. Lisa Pruitt, a law professor at the University of California, Davis and lead author of an article titled "Legal Deserts: A Multi-State Perspective on Rural Access to Justice," published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review in 2018, told Povich: “In most states, the relevant institutions are not willing to do this because constituencies are not strong enough. It’s hard to get lawmakers or The State Bar of California to care about rural people and places because there is no power there.” Povich notes, "A search of the California legislature’s database turned up no bills specifically designed to address the issue over the past several sessions."

Other states are showing some progress. Maine managed to open a "legal clinic in Fort Kent, a city on the Canadian border, and funded it at $600,000, according to Senate President Troy Jackson. In an interview, Jackson said while there was little opposition, some residents of other rural parts of the state thought maybe they should get a clinic too. That discussion was put off, but he expects others to make the case if the first program is a success," Povich reports. "Nebraska’s program, the Legal Education for Public Service and Rural Practice Loan Repayment Assistance fund, last fiscal year paid 34 recipients between $1,000 and nearly $5,000 toward their law school loans if they work in designated rural areas, according to an email from Jeffery A. Pickens, chief counsel of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy. . . .To entice them, he said, the program’s advocates talk about experience rather than money."