The Justice Bus was launched in 2025 to assist South Dakota residents living in legal deserts. (Courtesy of the Unified Judicial System).
This year, a nonprofit that provides legal aid to low-income South Dakotans launched the state’s first mobile legal aid office, with the goal of increasing accessibility throughout the state.
Swaths of western South Dakota are classified as legal deserts, where barriers such as poverty, a lack of transportation and internet access, combined with a scarcity of attorneys, make it difficult for people to obtain legal assistance.
The new effort addresses the problem immediately while longer-term solutions, such as the state’s rural lawyer recruitment and retention program, are being developed.
Dakota Plains Legal Services used a $125,000 state grant to launch its Justice Bus program. The bus transports South Dakotans to 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 levied on certain court documents.
South Dakotans suffer as a result of their inability to access civil legal aid, according to Jana Gray, Dakota Plains’ director of development and special projects.
“They might not be able to gain custody of their children, get a protection order or they might just give up,” Gray told me.
The bus has stopped in Pierre, Winner, Gregory, and other rural communities in western South Dakota. Gray stated that the organization intends to attend tribal powwows (known as wacipis in Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) and other community events this summer.
So far this year, the nonprofit has collected five legal aid applications from community stops. Gray said that was promising.
People can fill out applications and receive legal assistance on the spot, inside the outfitted vehicle. Gray hopes to make regular visits to communities in the future and hold clinics on specific, common legal issues.
The Justice Bus will attend Eagle Butte’s Hometown Days on July 17, according to the Dakota Plains Legal Services calendar.
