This is the first episode in a new series called Access to Justice, which explores the growing gap of access to legal resources in different areas of the United States.

Legal deserts – defined by the American Bar Association as a county with fewer than one lawyer per 1000 people – are spreading across rural areas of the country. Indiana is facing a statewide attorney shortage and has seen rural legal deserts increase significantly in recent years. In 2024, the Indiana Supreme Court convened the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future to address the state’s growing attorney shortage.

Associate Editor Mary Bandstra sits down with Judge Melissa May from the Court of Appeals of Indiana to discuss the legal desert issue and Judge May’s work as a member of the Commission’s Incentivizing Rural Practice working group.

Research & Sources:

Hon, Melissa S. May & Michael Moore, Indiana Legal Deserts: Where We Are, How We Got Here, and What We Can Do, Res Gestae Vol. 67 No. 4 Nov 2023. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.inbar.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/November_2023_RG.pdf

Alexa Shrake, High Court Approves Recommendations to Address Attorney Shortage, Inside Indiana Business, October 4, 2024. https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/high-court-approves-recommendations-from-commission-on-indianas-legal-future

Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future (includes links to interim report): https://www.in.gov/courts/admin/legal-future/

Resources for Hoosiers seeking legal assistance:

Indiana Legal Help: https://indianalegalhelp.org/

Indiana Legal Services: https://www.indianalegalservices.org/