Statz, et al.: Why A2J Initiatives Fail Rural Americans

In “They Had Access, But They Didn’t Get Justice”: Why Prevailing Access to Justice Initiatives Fail Rural Americans (Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law), Michele Statz (Minnesota Medical School/Law), Honorable Robert Friday (Minnesota District Court Judge), and Jon Bredeson (Northland Project) analyze current access to justice (A2J) initiatives as they apply in rural communities in particular.

These authors are the first to empirically examine the consequences of A2J initiatives being developed in urban areas rather than rural regions. This article draws on over three years of mixed-methods research across the Upper Midwest. Overall, the article argues that A2J “solutions” are not only insufficient in rural areas but actually compound existing stresses.

According to the authors, prevailing A2J initiatives are flawed at three primary levels: (1) a failure to meaningfully recognize the limits of rural infrastructural capacity and the complex barriers low-income rural residents navigate, (2) a presumption that anyone in a crisis situation, let alone someone facing these barriers, can effectively be their own attorney, and (3) a professional understanding of justice that is critically at odds with rural individuals’ own expectations.

Current A2J initiatives focus primarily on providing people with the legal tools they will need to be advocate for themselves, primarily through forms, self-help clinics, telephone advice, and unbundled services. The authors state this is not enough. Despite this “access” to forms, the court, and the adjudicative process, people still do not have the right to counsel. Through examples and case studies, the article demonstrates how this absence of counsel in rural places is intimately felt and of profound consequence, impacting procedural and substantive dimensions of the courtroom.

Overall, this article highlights how the attorney is the bridge between “access” and “justice” and what exactly this means in the context of A2J initiatives. Many A2J initiatives overlook the role of the attorney in rural communities, particularly in light of the many other barriers that are endemic to rural life. The main role of the attorney is not to solve the problem, but to bear the burden of the problem – the crisis – so that it may be solved in a dignified and just way.