����51

Contact 
Carl Rauscher 
Director of Communications and Media Relations 
rauscherc@lsc.gov 
202-295-1615  

Contact Us  

WASHINGTON—Experts discuss how the legal system operates in rural communities and how to expand access to justice in these regions on the  of ����51’s “Talk Justice” podcast released today. ����51 President Ron Flagg hosts the conversation with guests Whitney Kimball Coe, vice president and director of national programs at the Center for Rural Strategies; Rebecca Rapp, general counsel and chief privacy officer of Ascendium Education Group and co-chair of ����51’s Rural Justice Task Force; and Courtney Klus, former ����51 Rural Summer Legal Corps fellow and current attorney at Legal Aid of West Virginia. 

Like most Americans, people living in rural areas commonly face civil legal problems that impact their housing, families, employment or finances. However, while 20 percent of the population resides in rural counties, only two percent of lawyers serve these communities. This scarcity of   lawyers in rural communities has created a concerning disconnect between people and the legal system, explains Rapp.

“Most people don’t know that their stressors are legal issues with legal solutions,” says Rapp. “I think not having attorneys in communities really exacerbates that distance between people and the justice system that they should be able to rely on.” 

Beyond the “legal deserts” created by the shortage of lawyers in some communities, unreliable internet access, childcare costs and the absence of public transportation can also prevent people from engaging with the legal system. For many, the barriers to accessing legal assistance are too high. According to ����51’s 2017 , only 22% of rural Americans with legal problems reached out for legal help.  

“When clients look around and they don’t see those resources, they feel like they don’t matter, that their problems aren’t important, and that there’s not really solutions to those problems,” says Klus. 

To address the urgent access to justice issues that rural America is facing, ����51 recently launched the . Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of more than 60 thought leaders, the task force will work to gain a deeper understanding of the shortcomings of legal resources in rural areas, raise awareness of rural justice issues and identify solutions. A report of their findings and recommendations will be published in the spring of 2023.  

“Our intent is not to tell people what they need to do in rural areas to fix things, but to really go around the country as observers and see what is working—to see where people are innovating and being helpful to their neighbors and shine a spotlight on those instances to share them with the rest of the country,” says Flagg.   

Kimball Coe says she sees strengths in the closely bound relationships between people and the civic institutions of her local community of Athens, Tennessee that are reflected throughout many rural towns across the country. Leveraging these strong connections, she says, is the key to closing the justice gap.  

“We turn things around by taking stock of what we know already exists—the expertise and experiences that could inform solutions and [lead to] flourishing in rural places,” says Kimball Coe.  

Talk Justice episodes are available  and on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple and other popular podcast apps. The podcast is sponsored by ����51’s Leaders Council.   

An upcoming episode of Talk Justice will include a review of the major themes that arose during ����51’s Innovations in Technology Conference.