The University of Maine School of Law is hoping to expand its student legal aid clinic into Aroostook County through a new legislative proposal.
A bill heard by legislators on Wednesday would fund a three-year pilot project in Fort Kent, that would create a satellite office for the law school's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic.
Lawyers and local officials say the proposed clinic in Aroostook County would help address the area's significant shortage of legal representation, and hopefully attract more lawyers to stay in the region permanently.
The legislature's education committee heard testimony Wednesday on a new bill to fund a three-year pilot project in Fort Kent. The clinic would operate as a satellite office of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, a program run by the University of Maine School of Law where students serve as specially licensed attorneys for low-income clients.
UMaine Law School Dean Leigh Saufley says that the program would fill an immediate need in many rural towns with only a few practicing lawyers — many near retirement.
"Without local lawyers to help with these issues, our rural families, individuals and economies suffer," Saufley said. "The ability of Maine people to obtain the benefits of the laws you enact, will be hampered or eliminated if people, schools, and businesses can't receive the legal help and advocacy they need."
Fort Kent Attorney Toby Jandreau told the legislature's education committee that the program would also allow Maine students to spend time in the area, and eventually convince them to stay.
"That there's a future for them in rural Maine. And that there's a good life for them in rural Maine. And there's income that's sustainable here in rural Maine," Jandreau said.
The state funding would pay for administration and a new professor in Fort Kent to oversee the student attorneys.
The project received wide support from the legal community on Wednesday including from the Maine Judicial Branch and the Maine Trial Lawyers Association.
UMaine Law School officials say they hope that the clinics can eventually be duplicated in other parts of rural Maine.
