The impact of the rural lawyer shortage on access to justice in Indiana

Katie Stancombe reported in May of this year, for the Indiana Lawyer, on consequences of that state's rural lawyer shortage.  Here's the lede:  

Sharing attorneys with neighboring counties is a common, yet difficult, routine for Owen County Judge Lori Quillen.

Presiding over a rural, low-income county has been challenging to say the least. With no freshly graduated lawyers coming to Indiana's less-populated counties, rural trial court judges are feeling stretched thinner by the day.

"We are suffering from the same public defender drought that everyone else I've talked to is suffering from," said Judge Dena Martin, who presides in neighboring Greene County.

Getting legal resources to low-income litigants is a major struggle both nationally and on Hoosier soil.

* * * 

Efforts from undergraduate institutions in rural Indiana have tried to bridge the gap by providing pro bono legal services. In 2019, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, in collaboration with Indiana Legal Services, piloted limited-scope representation pro bono legal clinics based out of DePauw University in Greencastle and Wabash College in Crawfordsville.

Andrew Dettmer, one of the Wabash clinic's founding volunteers, said the goal was finding ways to pull lawyers from other communities to provide limited scope, brief legal advice and clinics to Hoosiers in need of legal knowledge.

* * * 

Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Victor Quintanilla, a 2021- 2022 American Bar Foundation/JPB Foundation Access to Justice scholar, is currently examining access to justice for unrepresented persons in virtual court proceedings.

In 2019, Quintanilla co-authored the Indiana Civil Legal Needs Study and Legal Aid System Scan, which addresses national findings and spotlights the legal needs of rural communities across Indiana where help is lacking.

"Some of these rural counties can be harder to reach with legal aid," he said. "They'll have fewer pro bono attorneys available to do work. And it really spotlights the need for creative and innovative solutions able to help serve people."