Access Makes All the Difference
By Kade McClure and Judith Maute

Sue lived in a small town in rural Oklahoma with her two teenage children, unemployed and without regular means of transportation. Her battles with mental illness triggered interpersonal conflicts with many in the community, including the public housing officials who sought to evict them, in casual disregard of statutory due process protections. She remained in a troubled marriage with a history of domestic violence. Fortunately, Sue had a dedicated mental health caseworker who often traveled the long distance to meet with her, providing psychological counseling services, temporary assistance for her rent and encouraging her to obtain medical treatment and legal representation.

Faced with eviction and frustrated by the administrative process to obtain Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid benefits, Sue asked for help from Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. In time the eviction proceeding terminated, and she received federal public benefits. In all, the representation consumed about 30 hours of lawyer time, half of which involved travel to the outlying town where Sue lived. We believe that the compassionate mental health and legal services enabled Sue and her children to continue functioning during difficult times. Resolution of her legal issues would have a continuing impact on her children. Problems related to poverty, mental illness and domestic violence are self-perpetuating. Efforts to address immediate problems can have lasting impact.

No one in our society is immune from the trauma of mental illness, income interruption, family strife or post-traumatic stress. As a nation, we are becoming more aware of the difficulties encountered by those who served in the armed forces as they try to become re-acclimated. Yet, the reality is that the many miles that separate service providers from rural clients makes more difficult effective representation.

The legal problems of many low-income persons are complicated, intersecting substantive law, administrative procedure and mental health. At present, the legal outcome is determined more from happenstance, on whether one has received competent representation than on proper application of law to facts. Oklahoma must address the difficulties in delivering legal services to all its citizens, especially those who live in rural areas in which the few lawyers are already spread thin, and where the greatest concentration of lawyers practice in the metropolitan regions.

The OBA Access to Justice Committee is charged with exploring the challenges that low-income folks experience in trying to be successful in the courts and also in understanding how the courts work. Rural Sooners are particularly at a disadvantage when it comes to travel, the numbers of attorneys available to them and the income with which to retain these attorneys. From the Black Mesa in the panhandle to the southeast forests of the Ouachita National Forest, the stretch and variety of Oklahoma geography, both physical and political, presents formidable problems. Legal services are stretched thin in many of these areas. The committee is working to find innovative approaches to ensuring all Oklahomans have a fair shot at justice. Technology will be part of the answer, and partnerships between the courts, pro bono lawyers and nonprofit legal providers will also be a part.

These issues challenge the Oklahoma Bar Association leaders and members to create an infrastructure that efficiently delivers competent legal services to those with legitimate needs. If you have ideas about these issues or are interested in becoming involved with the important work of the Access to Justice Committee, please contact Kade McClure at kade.mcclure@laok.org or (580) 248-4675 or Judith Maute at jmaute@ou.edu or (405) 325-4747.