By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Kansas Supreme Court Justice Marla Luckert told lawmakers Wednesday she was happy she wouldn’t be talking about how a disaster had upended court operations like she has in past years with the COVID-19 pandemic and a cybersecurity attack.
Instead, she talked about her “grim” vision of a future where the rule of law is is threatened by a lack of legal representation.
Luckert, who delivered her State of the Judiciary speech before a joint session of the Senate and House, said she is motivated to ensure the state has a trusted legal system for generations to come.
“Sadly, if we maintain the status quo, that dream is at risk,” Luckert said. “I make that grim prediction because the stark reality is that we have a justice gap in Kansas and across the country — a growing divide between people with the means to access basic legal services and people who need those services but cannot afford them or, even if they can, are unable to find an attorney within a reasonable driving distance to represent them.”
Luckert said the justice gap brings to mind the faces of people who were in her courtroom as a trial judge: “The young mother with small children whose spouse moved them to Kansas for a job and then abandoned them, leaving her with no money, no food, no car, no pride and no support in a community of strangers. The grizzled combat vet overwhelmed by medical debt from his wife’s last illness. The list goes on and on and on.”
To avoid “an all-out crisis,” she said, the courts and legislators cannot be complacent.
“We must all put on our hero capes and work together to find solutions,” Luckert said.
She outlined efforts by the courts to simplify procedures, and proposals to support self-representation, specialty courts, and the recruitment of attorneys to rural areas.
Last month, Luckert and Justice K.J. Wall unveiled a report on the shortage of attorneys in rural parts of the state. All but five of the state’s 105 counties are considered rural.
The 84-page report found just 21% of active attorneys serve 45% of the state’s population in the 100 rural counties. One-third of the rural attorneys are older than age 60. In 47 counties, there is less than one attorney per 1,000 residents. Two counties have no attorneys at all.
Luckert told reporters after the speech that she planned to introduce legislation based on a recommendation in the report to provide a tuition reimbursement incentive for attorneys who attend law school in Kansas and go to work in rural areas. She said she was waiting on a cost estimate for the proposal.
Wall told reporters he hoped to avoid crossing the threshold of a constitutional crisis, which he warned about last month when the report was released.
Among other ideas, the report pointed to the lack of engagement with K-12 students about pursuing a legal career.
“One of the findings that we uncovered was that younger people make their decisions about their profession at a very young age — could be elementary to junior high — and the importance of outreach to that age group is critical and lacking currently,” Wall said.
