Challenges and opportunities for increasing access to justice in Virginia
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VAA2J:
VIRGINIA ACCESS TO JUSTICE
A website by David Neumeyer with information, resources and recommendations to
increase access to justice for ALL Virginians
Introduction
Access to legal services, i.e. justice, does not exist for most Virginians; court processes are built for lawyers and are not understandable for most people, but there are not enough Virginia attorneys to meet most legal needs, and many people cannot afford a lawyer but don't qualify for help from legal aid. Access is declining for individuals and small businesses as the number of lawyers declines.
Please work with me to improve access to justice in Virginia.
David Neumeyer
PROVIDING REPRESENTATION OR USEFUL INFORMATION TO ALL WHO NEED IT
96 percent of the civil legal problems of low-income Americans receive inadequate or no legal help, and only 1% of cases in Virginia's General District Courts, where most cases are handled, have an attorney on both sides. Litigants represented by counsel are in general twice as likely to receive a positive outcome as those who are not. The lack of representation and other forms of assistance for low and moderate income people, and the resulting adverse results often experienced by them, are known as the justice gap.
Many different efforts are needed to reduce this gap. The Virginia State Bar recently published the final report of its Study Committee on the Entry, Growth and Distribution of Virginia Attorneys, and the executive summary in particular should be read by every person concerned with civil justice in Virgina.
I have spent many hours working to publicize the problems and solutions described in these documents, and now begin work on implementing those solutions. I urge all readers of these pages to work with me.
LEGAL DESERTS AND THE DECLINING NUMBER OF VIRGINIA LAWYERS
The number of rural lawyers in the U.S. and in Virginia has declined significantly over the last ten years, and the number of new law graduates who take the Virginia bar exam has declined by 2/3 in that time period. A 2018 pro bono drive in rural counties by Virginia Legal Aid Society found many fewer attorneys present, and many of those were prosecutors and defenders prohibited from pro bono work. The problem has been documented by the New York Times, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, the Pew Charitable Trusts, NPR, blogs, and the ABA.
The particular impacts in Virginia are described in more detail above; the following section describes population changes in Virginia's rual counties in detail.
Demographic Trends in Virginia: Virginia’s population moving to smaller cities and towns
Virginia’s largest population centers are losing population, while smaller communities are gaining. These are the principal findings accompanying population data released by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center in January 2025 as described by Dwayne Yancey of Cardinal News:
Fairfax County continues to lose population, although its out-migration has slowed dramatically. Virginia Beach also continues to lose population, as its out-migration shows no signs of slowing. That city now is losing more people than any other locality in the state. Danville, by contrast, is seeing its population grow for the first time in more than three decades.
In all, 17 localities that lost population in the 2020 census are now gaining population — mostly in Southside and counties along the Chesapeake Bay — as migration remakes many rural communities. Overall, Virginia is now officially seeing more people move in than move out, just not into parts of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. That marks a reversal of a decades-plus trend.
These are some of the key findings of Virginia’s most recent population estimates, which were released on January 27. 2025 by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.[1]
Another factor to note, as explained by Yancey in the same month, is the impact of immigration:
[Virginia’s] two biggest metro areas are now entirely dependent on immigration to drive their population growth. While it’s fair to argue about how much population growth is too much, population loss is almost always synonymous with economic decline — and without immigration, both Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads would be losing population.
It’s not just the two biggest metros, either. Virginia overall has seen its population grow by 78,505 since 2020 — but that’s entirely due to immigration. Virginia has recently reversed its out-migration trends — more people are now moving into the state than out. That’s a welcome change. Nevertheless, without immigration, Virginia would be losing population by a very modest amount — 1,352 people, or about the size of the Wise County town of Appalachia — but it would definitely be on the minus side. Keep in mind that these numbers reflect rising immigration numbers under the Biden administration. What happens if those numbers slow down? Nobody should expect that current trend to continue, particularly with Trump coming into office. Our next governor may have to grapple with something no Virginia governor has faced since Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., James Pleasants, John Tyler and William Branch Giles presided over the state in the 1820s: a shrinking population. [2]
[1] Dwayne Yancey in Cardinal News, January 28, 2025; cardinalnews.org/2025/01/28/fairfax-county-and-virginia-beach-lose-population-but-danville-gains-for-first-time-in-decades/
[2] cardinalnews.org/2025/01/06/without-immigration-virginia-would-be-losing-population/
VAA2J: VIRGINIA ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Working Together to Ensure Access to Justice for ALL Virginians