University of South Carolina Law School gets ATJ van to serve rural areas

Mike Fitts of the Columbia (South Carolina) Post-Courier reported a few days ago. Here's an excerpt, which frames the bus as a "big idea" to respond to a "big donation."

The big idea belonged to the school’s pro bono program director, Pamela Robinson: Why not have a bus that takes legal help out to the parts of the state where they have little or no resources. 

So the USC School of Law will receive a fully outfitted bus designed as a mobile office.

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Some legal aid organizations have used a bus or van to bring people to an office where services can be provided, but this likely is the nation’s first full-service mobile law operation.

The bus will be used to take law students, professors and lawyers out into mostly rural communities and meet with residents who might have questions or need advice and bring them the help they need for free. In some of these areas, Robinson said, there are only one or two lawyers for an entire town or county. 

The school’s bus is being completed in Ohio, and the goal is to use it for the first trips starting about March 1.