Thirty feet above the marble entrance to the Supreme Court looms the Great American Promise: “Equal Justice Under Law.” Chiseled by hand before the building was completed in 1935, the bold pledge—though etched in stone—remains distant and unfulfilled in neighborhoods just a few miles away. Burdened with poverty and a lack of resources—access to technology and easy transportation, first and foremost—the less fortunate have long found equal justice mostly out of reach.
COVID-19 has only increased the problem, isolating needy Americans in their most desperate time. Yet as you drive into any rural area of America, you find that the virus also revealed what has already proven to be one of the great equalizers of our age: technology. It’s making a profound difference and traveling across America makes that clear.
Drive beyond the D.C. suburbs and history shows the grand promise is also not kept for rural Virginians. Taking time off work, paying for babysitters, finding someone to care for an elderly person in your charge, often needing to travel considerable distance, minimal internet access, lower education levels, unfamiliarity with the legal process, and a lack of other resources—including money and knowing people in the system—all weigh more heavily on people seeking equal justice in rural areas.
Although advocates for access to justice helped level the pavement across the country, not enough time and too much distance have a huge impact on staffs with limited resources and a growing population needing legal assistance. The more time clients spend on the road, the more burdensome the experience. The more time advocates and lawyers spend on the road, the fewer clients they can help. In rural America, the expanse exasperates the problem, and COVID-19 has made that isolation all the more troublesome.
This Article spotlights Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota’s (“LASNEM”) response to the access-to-justice crisis in the age of COVID-19. The first part briefly summarizes the civil justice gap, focusing on potholes littering LASNEM’s roads. The second part discusses the initiatives adopted by LASNEM since the pandemic struck, including the Justice Bus, Legal Kiosks, and the partnerships made with the courts and community partners to participate in eviction-diversion pilots. In short, this Article argues that bridging the access-to-justice gap in rural Minnesota requires a multidimensional approach utilizing technology as the vehicle.