Legal deserts represent a significant and growing challenge: in over 50 percent of rural counties nationwide, a combination of lawyer shortages, high poverty rates, language access barriers, distance to courthouses, technology barriers, and legal service shortages leave community members navigating complex legal issues without legal supports. With generous support from the State Justice Institute (SJI), the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has engaged in extensive legal deserts mapping, using GIS technology, to help courts and their justice system partners gain deeper insights into the needs of people living in legal deserts. More actionable research is needed, however, to help courts and their justice system partners understand the universe of the possible for legal desert interventions across a variety of the conditions that create legal deserts. Researchers have long called for data that helps “to identify region-specific legal and nonlegal problems and priorities … [and] how rural people access and interact with the legal system or about particular legal needs that are subsequently unrecognized or otherwise are going unaddressed.” 

The Legal Deserts Problem-Solving Project establishes an expansive inventory of existing and possible legal desert interventions. The Project also assembles a cohort of 3 state courts to engage in: (1) training regarding legal deserts and their possible solutions; (2) participatory action research in their jurisdictions to understand the unique conditions of the legal deserts in their state; (3) technical assistance in selecting and implementing right-sized legal desert solutions for their state.