In between juggling a growing caseload, Ashland Municipal Court Judge John Good spends a lot of his time trying to find lawyers. He said it’s time he doesn’t have to spare.
“I need to be working on other cases that I have, but I gotta find a lawyer to represent this lady,” he said referring to a case on his docket.
A declining number of local attorneys in the county means Good is down to two people who will serve as court appointed counsel.
“They’re doing it out of a sense of obligation ... they can make a lot more money doing other stuff,” he said. “Historically it’s young lawyers who tend to do that right out of law school. We just don’t have them.”
So, Good looks outside the county, which can be more time consuming and expensive.
He also worries that it could negatively affect representation. Lawyers from outside the area will typically come in for several cases at once and may not be able to meet with their client in advance.
“If I have to put a lawyer in Wooster or Mansfield to represent somebody ... they may not be able to travel over there to see that attorney,” he said.
Good said Ashland County isn’t the only place facing those challenges.
According to the Ohio State Bar Association, most of Ohio’s rural counties are considered “legal deserts” and do not have enough attorneys to serve their population which it calls a symptom of a larger decline in young people entering the field.
And that makes it even harder to find representation for people who cannot afford a lawyer.
“Obviously public employment, the pay is not the greatest,” said Steve Kandel, who heads Carroll County’s public defender’s office. “There’s got to be some incentive to do the job, and when you’re talking about rural counties, I just feel like it’s going to get more and more difficult.”
Elizabeth Miller leads the Ohio Public Defender’s Office. As a home rule state, she said Ohio does not have a statewide public defender system.
Instead, each county decides how to provide defense to people who can’t afford representation. There are five different models used throughout the state.
Most counties operate like Ashland. If someone cannot afford an attorney, they’ll receive what’s known as court-appointed counsel. That’s a private lawyer that’s paid by the county to take on a case.
Unlike public defenders, they don’t work for the government full time.
Miller said it could cost counties more to open a public defender’s office.
“You have full-time employees and benefits and training and operations, and you have to have an office with confidential client space,” she said.
The state reimburses every county at the same rate for their spending on indigent defense, and the reimbursement rate fluctuates based on funding. Currently, counties get 80% of their spending back. But Good said he’s seen it go as low as 45%.
Even so, Miller has seen a growing number of states open public defender offices. And Good believes that eventually, Ashland County might have to be one of them.
“It’s going to be, I think, a large increase in cost, but we may not have the choice,” Good said.
Miller said the state is taking some steps to address attorney shortages. In 2023, the Ohio Department of Higher Education launched its rural practice incentive program.
The program, which repays loans for attorneys working in underserved areas, hopes to address the financial barriers that might keep an attorney from returning home to practice.
“It’s kind of hard to expect them to come into Ashland County and take my cases for 75 bucks an hour when they can work at a big firm in Columbus and make $110,000 a year right out of the box,” Good said. “I think that’s part of the problem, but I don’t think it’s just one thing.”
Miller agreed that financial barriers are only one piece of the issue. Her office also recently formed an advisory committee to look at what kind of support and resources are needed to keep lawyers in public service.
The Ohio State Bar Association is taking its own measures. Its rural practice counsel works with middle and high school students to better understand the role lawyers play in their communities, in hopes of one day inspiring them to enter the legal field.
