LEGAL DESERTS: Scarcity of lawyers threatens justice in many rural areas

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The Carolinas feature much in the way of habitats and landscapes. There are mountains, flatlands, foothills and oceans. And deserts.

These deserts are not barren areas devoid of water and life, but socioeconomically challenged pockets of the states devoid of attorneys and, often, justice.

“This means that every day, millions of people in our communities are forced to handle complex and life-altering problems — such as safe housing, access to health care, child custody, and protection from abuse — by themselves,” Scheree Gilchrist, chief innovation officer at Legal Aid of North Carolina in Raleigh, said. “This is exacerbated in legal deserts. … It creates backlogs for the courts, delays in the delivery of justice, and unfavorable, life-altering decisions and judgments that, if they had an attorney, could have been avoided.”

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Wisconsin has an average of 2.7 lawyers for every 1,000 residents — much fewer than both New York, which has the highest national average of 9.5 lawyers for every 1,000 residents, and Minnesota, which has 4.6 lawyers for every 1,000 residents. Within Wisconsin, attorneys are concentrated in and around the largest cities, leaving rural places short of legal services.

In North Carolina, nearly half of the state’s 100 counties meet the definition of “legal desert.” Lesley Albritton, Legal Aid’s chief of staff in Greenville, said that more than 6 out of 10 North Carolina attorneys work in one of five urban counties. According to the 2020 American Bar Association Profile of the Legal Profession, North Carolina — tied with Mississippi, Iowa, and Indiana — has the third-fewest lawyers per capita in the nation.

South Carolina ranks even lower on the list, along with Arkansas and Arizona having the least number of attorneys per capita in America. It also offers fewer legal aid lawyers to assist low-income individuals than any other state.

Elizabeth Chambliss, law professor and director of the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said that the state is one of only 16 that does not have a direct state appropriation for legal aid.

“Legal aid lawyers are also unequally distributed,” Chambliss said. “Charleston has four legal aid providers [organizations] compared to one for the rest of the state. Yet, some of the highest poverty levels and per capita civil court case rates are in rural parts of the state.”

Chambliss added that most parties in civil court — up to 70% — are unrepresented, and only 8% of cases feature lawyers on both sides.

“In some types of cases, the numbers are even starker,” Chambliss said. “In 2019, 99.7% of defendants in eviction cases, 92.3% of defendants in foreclosure cases, and 96% of defendants in debt-collection cases were unrepresented.”

Justice can’t flourish

Distinctly, cost is a significant barrier for low-income individuals seeking legal services. There is no constitutional right to an attorney in civil matters; consequently, 92% of low-income Americans do not receive any or enough legal help, according to the most recent Justice Gap Report by the Legal Services Corp.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, North Carolina and South Carolina rank among the top 10 in the percentage of impoverished residents, featuring poverty rates of 13.2% and 14.2%, respectively. Legal work is high-stakes, complicated and expensive to retain. According to U.S. News & World Report, hiring a lawyer can cost between $100 and $300 an hour, prohibitive to many who are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table.

Cost, however, is not the only barrier to justice. Chambliss noted that many people are unaware that their problems might have legal solutions or that no-cost legal solutions might be available. Those living in geographically isolated or economically disadvantaged areas also might lack transportation or easy internet access. Many courthouses have limited or no self-help legal services, she added.

“South Carolina Legal Services, the front-line provider of legal aid in South Carolina, engages in all kinds of outreach — from pop-up clinics and information sessions to self-help videos on YouTube and TikTok — but they only have about 65 lawyers serving the entire state, so their resources are spread very thin,” Chambliss said.

Planting roses in the sand

Many say that despite efforts to entice lawyers to bring their expertise to rural areas, the lack of attorneys will likely continue for the foreseeable future. Across the nation, lawyers are attracted to larger markets. In South Carolina, three counties — Richland, Charleston, and Greenville — account for more attorneys than the state’s 43 other counties combined. It’s much the same in North Carolina, where the lion’s share of lawyers call Mecklenburg, Wake, Durham, Forsyth, and Guilford counties home.

Suzanne Saucier is the managing attorney for Legal Aid’s Smoky Mountain office in Sylva. Saucier said the reason for recruiting and retention difficulties in rural areas is based on a simple concept.

“That’s where the jobs are,” she said. “If you want the money and prestige of working for a firm, you’re going to be in a city. Hanging a shingle is something that younger attorneys are hesitant to do — they want to work under someone, and they want to be mentored, which is a good thing.

Albritton agrees.

“The idea of moving to a rural area and hanging out a shingle can be daunting, especially if it is not an area of the state with which a lawyer is very familiar,” she said. “It can be hard to envision a pathway to networking and support without a firm to back them up.”

Albritton said that Legal Aid is different because it functions like a large firm that serves all 100 North Carolina counties, providing training and support from experienced attorneys to newer lawyers working in even the most remote parts of the state.

Although the support is there from Legal Aid — North Carolina’s third largest firm — the agency is constrained by dollars and staff. For example, Saucier’s two offices consist of five attorneys striving to serve the residents of seven counties, the largest judicial district in North Carolina. In a perfect world, Saucier said, she would have an office in each county staffed by two attorneys and a paralegal.

“I have an attorney on an upcoming Monday who has cases, I think, set in three different counties,” she said. “What that means is that he’s going to have to cover those three counties to the extent that he can, and that means that clients are going to have to wait on him.”

To minimize the waiting for clients and the courts, Saucier said, her offices shuffle attorneys when needed and use private attorneys, often generalists, to help with the caseload. Albritton said it is not unusual for staff members to drive an hour or more from their home office to meet with clients or get to court.

“This is a regular way of doing practice out in our region,” Saucier said.

Legal Aid does not handle criminal cases, and Saucier said that getting attorneys to take court-appointed cases has been an issue. According to the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, more than 800,000 criminal defendants are awaiting adjudication of their cases. Low rates for private attorneys to take on these cases contribute to the issue, NCAJ asserts. Immediate Past President Valerie Johnson noted in an NCAJ blog that young lawyers, particularly those burdened with student loan debt, might find it difficult to establish a practice in a poverty-stricken area.

Legislators have approved funding to start a public defender’s office in Saucier’s district, including a chief public defender, 14 assistant public defenders and seven administrative staffers.

When and whether all the positions will be filled in a district that is less-than-desirable to some remains to be seen.

“I think there is a perception that rural communities are not thriving places to live,” Albritton said. “In reality, rural North Carolina is full of unique places that offer all sorts of benefits when it comes to quality of life. Not to mention, there is a great sense of purpose and fulfillment that comes from serving a small community.”

Jason Luck, town attorney for Clio, South Carolina, a town of fewer than 1,000, is one of a handful of attorneys serving impoverished Marlboro County. He moved his practice from Charleston in 2020 and said he has no regrets.

“The optimist in me says as attorneys discover the opportunities for professional growth in rural areas, this situation will resolve itself,” Luck said. “Until then, we’re going to need periodic visits from groups of lawyers — like Remote Area Medical, but legal — for some basic needs like wills and powers of attorney.”

Follow me to the desert

For their part, law schools are employing their resources for the greater good.

Amy Barefoot Graedon, assistant dean for communications at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said that UNC provides legal services through its pro bono program and 10 clinics.

“Our pro bono program takes students to various places throughout the state for fall break, winter break and spring break trips to provide legal services in communities that have little access,” Graedon said.

Taylor Gilliam, pro bono program director at USC, said that even though one 1 of 5 South Carolinians lives below 125% of the federal poverty line, making them eligible for subsidized legal assistance, funding for South Carolina Legal Services, a frontline provider of civil legal aid within the state, supports only 54 attorneys — one for every 18,000 eligible residents.

To help meet the needs of South Carolina’s poor, USC deploys the Palmetto LEADER (LEgal ADvocacy and Educational Resources), a custom-built bus and fully functional, mobile law office, bringing legal services such as wills, powers-of-attorney, expungements, and legal document review from Columbia to those in more remote parts of the state who otherwise could not afford legal assistance.

Working from the LEADER recently on his first trip aboard the bus, heading to Clio in Marlboro County to conduct a wills and health care power-of-attorney clinic, Gilliam wrote in an email that the school’s pro bono program is an extension of its academic curriculum, teaching students substantive law and how to give back to the community through experiential learning. Witnessing the poverty in the state’s rural counties and helping to abate it is crucial, Gilliam said, adding that he looks to train future lawyers to include a pro bono component in their practices.

“Following graduation, students will be clerking for judges, working as prosecutors and defense attorneys, in various non-profits and government entities, and working in firms,” Gilliam wrote in an email. “Some students choose dual-degree programs, some go into the military, and others use their JD in non-practicing ways. At the end of the day, if they are able to see firsthand how their profession can serve others, we stand a chance at closing the justice gap in South Carolina.”

Campbell University School of Law recently participated in the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism Legal Desert Summit at the North Carolina State Bar, coordinating with other entities regarding how to combat legal deserts. Mallory Underwood, Campbell’s director of career and professional development, said that while most Campbell graduates end up practicing in urban areas such as Raleigh, the school has a tradition of sending practice-ready, service-oriented attorneys to small towns throughout the state.

“First, our office created programming to educate our students about both the statewide need for lawyers and the many opportunities it creates for students,” she said. “The programs are designed to highlight the practical realities of working in a small town versus a larger city and the many benefits a small-town practice can provide.”

‘We can’t do this work alone’

Canadian philosopher Matshona Dhliwayo once wrote that “a flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how great, can be overcome.” Those fighting the good fight in the Carolinas’ legal deserts agree but with a caveat.

Gilchrist said it’ll take a village to serve the underserved because the need outpaces Legal Aid’s ability to help, especially in rural areas where travel time and limited court access can make service delivery even more challenging.

“We can’t do this work alone,” Gilchrist said. “Through the innovation lab, we will deepen our ties in the communities we serve and with other legal service providers in the state, but also foster partnerships with technology companies, universities, and community organizations to improve access to justice.”

Albritton said that Legal Aid has been working in legal deserts for 20 years and is deeply committed to providing quality legal representation to the community through one-on-one client services and community education and outreach. She added that legal services providers are uniquely positioned to help solve the access-to-justice issue in these areas.

“This is because we have an incentive to work on creative solutions … to deliver our services,” Albritton said. “However, as (Gilchrist) noted, it will take partnerships between the public and private sectors of the legal communities and beyond to provide a full range of legal services to our rural communities.”