This summer, staff from the Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota (LASNEM), wrote a scholarly article about the profound impact of the Reach Justice Minnesota project in northeastern Minnesota. Specifically, Jude Schmit, staff attorney, and Rachel Albertson, development and communications manager, zeroed in on the year-old Justice Bus initiative and their article was published by the Mitchell Hamline Law Review.
In Witnessed From the Justice Bus: Covid Drove Equal Justice Off the Road, But Technology Grabbed the Wheel and Is Steering Us Into the Future, Schmit and Albertson, with a combined 22 years of experience at LASNEM, discuss the implementation of the Justice Bus and Legal Kiosk initiatives, which they oversaw, and how through leveraging technology LASNEM was able to reach clients in the rural areas they serve during the pandemic. Ultimately, it argues, “bridging the access-to-justice gap in rural Minnesota requires a multidimensional approach utilizing technology as the vehicle.”
Dori Rapaport, LASNEM executive director, explained “The challenges facing rural America predictably only intensified as the pandemic moved our justice system virtual. The lack of technology, access to broadband internet, and infrastructural poverty became glaring problems in how communities were now expected to access the justice system. However, as this newly published law review article describes, technology to reach rural communities has proven to be a solution with impact that has surpassed expectations. This important article gives real examples of how technology, namely in the forms of justice buses, kiosks, and virtual court, have bridged the divide for those seeking civil legal services in a more meaningful way than decades of other tried solutions.”