Public defenders will benefit from new programs to curb rural lawyer shortages

Rural communities across the country face a constitutional crisis: they have too few lawyers to maintain their criminal court systems. Lacking public defenders and prosecutors, people charged with crimes face uncertainty, delay, and often blatant violations of their rights to counsel and due process. Victims wait too long for cases to resolve, and communities lose confidence in their legal systems.

Deason Center Executive Director, Professor Pamela Metzger, recently , describing the dire impact of rural lawyer shortages and potential solutions to this widespread problem. Metzger recommended that states enact economic incentive and pipeline programs that encourage students to become prosecutors and public defense attorneys in rural areas.

This year, several states considered bills to create student loan repayment programs for rural attorneys. One state adopted an incentive program specifically for rural public defense providers, and two others adopted incentives for a broader range of rural legal practice:

• Iowa enacted, an appropriations bill that funded an attorney loan repayment program and fund for public defense providers in rural Iowa. The program provides up to $10,000 per year, for up to six years. for attorneys providing public defense services in rural areas. The program prioritizes attorneys who went to law school or high school in Iowa.

• Kansas enacted , creating a rural legal training program. The program provides up to $100,000 in loan repayment assistance to students who graduate from Kansas law schools and practice law in rural Kansas communities. The Deason Center assisted the to encourage rural legal practice.

• Nebraska enacted, which created new priorities for the state’s Legal Education for Public Service and Rural Practice Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The program provides loan repayment assistance to lawyers employed by tax-exempt organizations that provide legal services to low-income clients or serve Nebraska's designated legal shortage areas. Under the bill, new program grants will prioritize applicants practicing in counties with three or fewer other active lawyers and a population of 75,000 or less. 
  
  

Several other states considered economic incentive programs but failed to enact them. Innovative proposals included:

• Ohio , which would have provided loan repayment assistance of up to $50,000 to court-appointed indigent defense attorneys, through a program that would have been administered by the State Public Defender.
  
  
• Illinois , which would have provided compensation to attorneys who relocate to underserved communities or to law firms that establish offices in those areas.

The Deason Center has published model legislation creating an economic incentive program to encourage students to provide public defense and prosecution services in rural areas.  You can read the model legislation HERE. For assistance in developing solutions for your state, contact the Deason Center at DeasonJusticeCenter@smu.edu.