Liberty and Justice for Y'all: Allowing Legal Paraprofessionals to Practice Law to Reduce the Effects of Legal Deserts in Rural Georgia
| Publication year | 2022 |
Liberty and Justice for Y'all: Allowing Legal Paraprofessionals to Practice Law to Reduce the Effects of Legal Deserts in Rural Georgia
Amanda Claxton
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The lack of attorneys in rural America1 is not merely a social or cultural problem—it is a legal problem that officers of the courts cannot
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continue to ignore. Legal deserts are geographical areas where legal services are widely unavailable.2 Particularly in rural Georgia, legal deserts are a substantial issue. Attorneys and nonprofit organizations have attempted to ease the detrimental effects of legal deserts in a variety of ways; for various reasons, those efforts have been insufficient, and rural counties struggle to attract lawyers. Still, there is one method of resolving legal deserts that Georgia has yet to attempt: creating an exception in Georgia's Rules of Professional Conduct3 to allow legal paraprofessionals to obtain a limited license to practice law.
A growing amount of research has surfaced within the last decade highlighting the effects of legal deserts.4 Nationwide, a few states have recognized that allowing nonlawyers to practice law in a limited scope could reduce the prevalent justice gap, particularly concerning poverty and indigent clients.5 This Comment promotes access to justice while advocating on behalf of rural communities within legal deserts. More explicitly, this Comment advocates for increased legal representation within geographically-remote locations while exploring the opportunity to amend Georgia's ethical standards to make the legal field—and justice—more accessible for all.
Creating an exception to Georgia's Rules of Professional Conduct to allow legal paraprofessionals to practice law in a limited scope, even using other states with similar programs as a model, will not be an easy feat. Nevertheless, allowing limited licensure of legal paraprofessionals could explicitly benefit rural areas in Georgia where lawyers are sparse. Empowering a workforce familiar with rural culture and lifestyle while easing the barrier to enter the legal field is necessary to reduce the burden of legal deserts in Georgia.
"Access to Justice" is a general term that describes access to the legal system, competent legal representation, and the right to enforce one's legal and constitutional rights.6 Many advocates argue that if legal
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services offered by attorneys and court systems are not accessible to everyone, the justice system does not work as intended.7
While an individual's ability to afford an attorney frequently correlates to their financial status, access to justice is not a burden exclusive to indigent or low-income clients. Instead, several additional demographics struggle to access necessary representation. As such, access to justice initiatives are typically expansive in scope. Those efforts, for example, include increasing access to affordable attorneys,8 creating opportunities for pro se litigants to utilize self-help centers,9 assisting those with limited English proficiency,10 removing physical barriers for those with disabilities,11 and curbing the use of abusive fines and excessive fees.12
Legal deserts are access to justice issues. A "legal desert" is a geographical area where access to legal services is nonexistent or
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severely limited.13 Legal deserts, for a variety of reasons, struggle to support a market for legal services. Those reasons might include widespread poverty,14 clients' inability to pay attorney fees,15 or a cultural distrust of lawyers.16 With an inadequate number of lawyers in rural areas, "the legal needs of residents—whatever their income, demographics, or legal issues—cannot be met."17 Advocating for access to justice is at the core of eradicating legal deserts.
There is currently no mathematical or technical formula for determining whether an area is a legal desert. Instead, "legal desert" is a more generalized, comprehensive characterization that insinuates a slew of legal and cultural challenges. In the United States, legal deserts are prominent in rural areas.18 Alternatively, metropolitans accumulate lawyers easily.19 For that reason, and because cities are generally more
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infrastructurally sound than remote areas,20 metropolises are customarily not considered legal deserts.21 Essentially, legal deserts are an issue unique to rural America.
While the term legal desert is novel, the obstacles faced by rural communities are longstanding, particularly concerning legal representation. The challenges posed by inaccessible legal services permeate many areas of life and have, unfortunately, become the norm in rural communities. For instance, legal deserts make it increasingly difficult for a spouse to attain a divorce with the help of an attorney who does not pose a conflict of interest, for a grandparent to acquire visitation rights for a grandchild at a reasonable cost, for an immigrant to receive legal advice from an attorney who speaks their first language, or for a woman being abused by her husband to hire an attorney who is also a woman.22 Because legal services in rural areas are frequently geographically inaccessible, individuals often are forced to drive several miles to a neighboring county or pay outrageous attorney fees to acquire assistance for those issues.23 Thus, legal concerns such as these may remain unresolved, or the client will dispute the issue as a pro se litigant, which will more likely result in a loss.24
A. Interpretations and Necessity of Data
After recognizing a need for comprehensive statistics, in 2020 and 2021, the American Bar Association (ABA) published information detailing the number of lawyers in every county in each state.25
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According to that data, there are approximately 1 million lawyers in the United States, which amounts to nearly four lawyers per 1,000 people.26 However, that proportion is deceiving.27 Many states, like New York and California, consist of atypically large populations of lawyers.28 Other states, like South Carolina and Tennessee, have far fewer lawyers.29 Those states with more lawyers skew data in a way that understates the severity of legal deserts nationally. In other words, examining data on a large scale creates the false appearance that rural communities have adequate legal representation.
The same phenomenon occurs when examining the data of Georgia. In Georgia, there are roughly three lawyers per 1,000 people.30 This number seems high, especially compared to neighboring states.31 On one hand, counties surrounding Atlanta, such as Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, have a remarkably large number of lawyers.32 On the other hand, dozens of counties within Georgia are home to less than ten
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lawyers, including several counties that are home to zero lawyers.33 Examining data of lawyers per county in Georgia accentuates the massive disparity in legal accessibility between rural and metro communities.34 Thus, to understand how deeply rural areas are devastated by a lack of attorneys, data should be examined on a county-by-county basis, not merely by analyzing the state as a whole.35
Poverty is relevant to conversations about legal deserts because the legal system was not designed for indigent clients or jurisdictions without attorneys.36 If money (or the lack thereof) was not at issue, then clients could simply pay an out-of-county attorney or take time off work and drive to a neighboring county. However, merely spending more or traveling long distances to attain an attorney is not a luxury most indigent clients behold. Thus, when examining a legal desert's effect on a rural community, it is imperative to acknowledge that poverty compounds that disparity.
A. Poverty and the Law
It is no surprise that "[b]eing poor in a legal desert can compound existing inequities . . . . [because] populations that are more likely to need a lawyer, such as the elderly and disabled populations," are underrepresented.37 Stated differently, those who need legal help often struggle the most to find it, much less pay for it:
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High-income individuals can afford to obtain legal advice at "critical junctures in life, such as getting married or divorced; welcoming a child; negotiating with a school district around special education obligations to a student; leasing or purchasing a home; paying taxes; navigating family-based or employment-based immigration applications; or planning to live and die with dignity." But low-income individuals often lack awareness of their rights and lack access to such legal resources.38
Recent data from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) exemplifies the prevalence of civil legal problems for low-income households.39 Specifically, in 2021, LSC found that approximately seventy-four percent (74%) of low-income households experienced one or more civil legal problems within that year.40 However, low-income Americans rarely seek legal help.41 Last year, low-income households only sought legal assistance for twenty-five percent (25%) of their significant civil legal issues.42 The unfortunate truth is that, nationwide, indigent Americans received insufficient legal help, or no legal help, for ninety-two percent (92%) of those particular legal challenges.43 Simply recognizing a legal need does not mean legal services could be provided. On the contrary, for those demographics in low-income households, lack of funding makes attaining an attorney in a legal desert much more difficult.
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There is a multitude of reasons why low-income individuals refuse to—or struggle to—seek legal assistance when they need it. Generally, expensive legal services,44 negative attitudes towards legal professionals,45 and lack of knowledge concerning the potential...
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