Delivering Long-Distance Justice
When social commentators and bar leaders opine about the “Access to Justice” crisis facing the nation, most don’t expect to be taken literally.
By “inaccessible,” they mean that millions of Americans can’t afford the high-priced help needed to navigate an arcane institution fond of fancy Latin phrases and stupefying legal mumbo-jumbo that flies over the heads of lay people. But now imagine if, in addition to a crisis of the pocketbook, hundreds of thousands of Americans seeking justice also faced a crisis of geography.
This is the doubly difficult challenge faced by legal services programs serving low-income clients across rural America: isolated clients, struggling to subsist, who are unaware of (and unable to get to) the few resources the government has provided to help them.
Legal Services Corporation addressed this problem Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at a three-day Rural Issues & Delivery Symposium in Nebraska City, Neb. The conference brought together three dozen conferees (lawyers, clients, and experts in rural delivery) to brainstorm national strategies to help more rural clients.
Nebraska typifies the problems of rural delivery, says Doug German, executive director of Nebraska Legal Services (NLS), which handles 95 percent of all legal aid work in the state. More than half of NLS clients live in rural or geographically isolated areas. “Right now, we can only assist about 15 percent of those people,” German says. “We have all the business in the world we could want.”
Rural programs must get creative in how they interact and exchange documents with rural clients, many of whom lack an automobile or access to public transportation. In Nebraska, a visit to one of NLS’ seven statewide offices can entail a drive of hundreds of miles, German says. Staff attorneys are
accustomed to handling sensitive legal matters over the phone and often do not physically meet their clients until they show up in court. “But there are always other ways to connect,” notes Annette Farnan, director of
NLS’ toll-free legal advice hotline. “We try to meet at a half-way point. There is always a café or library.” Legal aid attorneys have learned to rely on the kindness of tight-knit rural communities to help clients. Advocates will make arrangements for local banks to notarize documents for free, while medical offices will agree to provide copies and faxing at no charge. Other rural programs utilize voiceover Internet protocols to dramatically reduce long-distance phone costs. NLS also has plans to embrace the new trend in mobile pro se clinics and self-help web sites.
Anything to put a dent in the rural Access to Justice crisis, German says. “Rural people are less inclined to seek out assistance when they need it. It is a cultural issue that we are trying to change.”
