Researchers at Iowa State University have classified 18 of Iowa’s 99 counties as “legal deserts” because there are not enough attorneys in the area to represent private clients. ISU rural sociologist David Peters led the research, which found Lee County in southeast Iowa has a critical lack of attorneys.
Fourteen other counties, many with small populations, were rated as urgent or emerging legal deserts. The study evaluated data from most every state — Hawaii and Alaska were not included. It found 11 percent of rural counties in the 48 contiguous states are legal deserts.
Peters says while there are a lot of lawyers in the U-S, many aren’t taking private clients.
Two Iowa State University students who intend to become lawyers worked with Peters on the study.
Peters coordinates Iowa’s State’s “Small Town Project” and his research has focused on population decline in rural areas and discovered a surprising lack of access to attorneys in private practice.
The study was published in the spring edition of the South Dakota Law Review. Half of the paper reviewed policies to address legal deserts, and it found a few states issued licenses for legal paraprofessionals who can handle most legal matters without being supervised by an attorney. Peters says the cost of studying to become a licensed legal paraprofessional is far less than law school and he suggests rural communities could recruit local people who’d be more likely to stay once they get the certification.
