(C) South Dakota Searchlight
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Mobile legal aid clinic, the ‘Justice Bus,’ launches in SD • South Dakota Searchlight [1]
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Date: 2025-07
A nonprofit providing legal aid to low-income South Dakotans launched the state’s first mobile legal aid office this year, aiming to increase accessibility across the state.
Swaths of western South Dakota are considered legal deserts, where barriers such as poverty, lack of transportation and internet access, combined with a lack of attorneys, make it difficult for people to access legal help.
The new effort helps immediately address the problem while work continues on longer-term solutions, such as the state rural lawyer recruitment and retention program.
Dakota Plains Legal Services used a $125,000 state grant to launch its Justice Bus program. The bus is used to connect South Dakotans with legal aid for civil cases, such as custody, abuse and neglect, or protection orders.
The money came from the Commission on Equal Access to Our Courts, which awards grants funded by a $25 filing fee applied to some court documents.
An inability to access civil legal aid has consequences for South Dakotans, said Jana Gray, director of development and special projects for Dakota Plains.
“They might not be able to gain custody of their children, get a protection order or they might just give up,” Gray said.
The bus has stopped in Pierre, Winner, Gregory and other rural towns in western South Dakota. Gray said the organization plans to attend tribal powwows, known as wacipis in Dakota, Lakota and Nakota, and other community events this summer.
So far, the nonprofit has collected five applications for legal aid at community stops this year. That’s promising, Gray said.
People can fill out applications and receive legal aid on the spot, inside the outfitted vehicle. Gray hopes to regularly schedule visits to communities in the future and provide clinics on specific, prevalent legal issues in a community.
The Justice Bus will be at Eagle Butte’s Hometown Days on July 17, according to the Dakota Plains Legal Services calendar.
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