Oklahoma has no policies in place to help people with limited English skills negotiate their legal problems, does little to assist people who represent themselves and maintains fewer than one civil legal aid attorney for every 10,000 people living below the poverty level, according to a new report. By those and other measures, the state ranks at the very bottom in ensuring access to justice.
That’s according to the Justice Index — the National Center for Access to Justice’s 50-state survey of Americans’ ability to use the justice system. Despite Oklahoma’s low ranking, Michael Figgins, head of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma Inc., the state’s sole legal aid provider, welcomed the scrutiny.
