ATJ Update

City lawyer, country lawyer: Bringing access to justice in the Texas bush

As anyone born and raised in the Lone Star State will tell you, there’s Texas and then there’s small-town Texas. We’ve got 254 counties, 27 million people, and 1,216 incorporated cities. Though most of the state’s population now resides in major cities, 3.8 million people still live in the state’s rural areas, which is equal to or greater than the populations of 24 other states.

Those 3.8 million people are older, less educated, and poorer than their metropolitan counterparts, according to the 2012 Texas Rural Survey. That means there are plenty of rural Texans who need a lawyer, but can’t afford one – or sometimes even find one nearby.

Legal aid attorneys working in Texas rural areas have similar casework as their counterparts in the big city, but with some additional complications and a lot more driving. “Frankly, if you’re an attorney who covers multiple counties, you always need to be somewhere else,” said Rebecca Flanigan, branch manager of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid’s Corpus Christi office. “If we have a laptop, we can help just about anybody.”

The service area of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid covers 68 counties, and while its staff attorneys often work remotely, sometimes helping clients means driving a few hundred miles to meet with them in an empty courtroom.

“You can sit behind a desk and take care of business, or you can get out on the road and go to county courtrooms,” Flanigan said. “The same gratifications await you ... . If you want to develop into a courtroom attorney, this gives you ample opportunity to do that.”

Many of the most significant benefits to working as a rural legal aid attorney are unrelated to the job itself. For attorneys fresh out of law school and laden with student loans, jobs in rural and mid-size cities offer cheap prices for beautiful homes just two blocks from the county’s historic courthouse. “It’s easy to live near the schools they want if they have children, and they never have to worry about traffic,” said Bill Marble, the director of pro bono and bar relations for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas.

Amarillo, which has a population of about 200,000, covers 20 counties – an area larger than some countries. Of those, 13 have fewer than six attorneys, and a handful have none at all.

“That makes professional advancement easier, whether it’s becoming a prosecutor, a judge, a politician or a successful private attorney,” Marble said.

“Though the distance can seem isolating, modern technology makes it easy for attorneys to stay in touch with their personal and professional networks even far from the state’s metropolitan centers,” Marble said. “That could be part of why so many staff attorneys for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas are younger. In the smaller areas, you’re known and appreciated by the community.” According to Marble, “What I see is people who just want to help others and solve problems – and that’s what lawyers do.”

It’s not all rosy, though. Pablo Almaguer has worked for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for 18 years – since he graduated from law school – and he acknowledged that working as a legal aid attorney in the Valley can be difficult. “The lack of attorneys in rural areas often results in higher caseloads, less engagement from local bar associations, and fewer resources to direct clients to for help,” Almaguer said. “If a legal aid attorney can’t help them, there’s usually nowhere else for the client to go.”

He added, “The problems of poverty are often magnified in rural areas because there’s little infrastructure to help low-income residents.” “In a place like South Texas, which is growing very rapidly, accommodating the poor takes a backseat to development,” according to Almaguer. “There’s been horrible flooding here because the infrastructure’s not there to prevent it,” he noted. “The client might not be able to get to you because their county has been flooded.”

“The difference in accountability and experience can be eye-opening for attorneys used to large cities,” Almaguer said. Even though Hidalgo County is the eighth most populous county in the state, only one of its eight justices of the peace is a licensed attorney. This can be frustrating and make it difficult to retain attorneys. In addition, the years spent by attorneys who work in these areas is short compared to what you see in larger cities. Five to seven years is considered a success. To help push you past the thought of abandoning the clients who need help in these rural areas, Almaguer suggests that “you remember that you’re helping out your clients, that can help you along the way.”

For those committed to working for the greater good, the need is certainly in the rural areas of Texas. According to some estimates, as little as 10 percent to 25 percent of the need for legal aid in rural areas is actually met. “That means there’s a ready-made client population,” Flanigan said. “You can make a difference in someone’s life literally every single day.”

And there’s one more benefit that Flanigan said shouldn’t be overlooked: “You get to take pictures of historic courthouses. That’s a perk.”