Good fortune is often standing right in front of us but goes unrecognized. This is particularly the case for lawyers and the general public in St. Lucie County. Such good fortune arises from St. Lucie’s possession of a county law library, the Rupert J. Smith Law Library, located in downtown Fort Pierce, with a south county law library annex in Port St. Lucie. See https://www.rjslawlibrary.org.  St. Lucie is the only county served by a law library in the 19th Judicial Circuit, and one of only 24 counties in Florida with such a resource. See Florida Courts Help: Your Guide to Navigating Florida’s Court System. What follows is an explanation of why this matters and why the library merits support from local lawyers and laypeople alike.

 

A. What the RJS Law Library Means for Local Bar Members

 

Legal research today is largely an electronic affair. Traditional print sources — case reporters, hornbooks, Shepard’s, and so forth — have been replaced with electronic databases. Free research sources are accessible to every lawyer through The Florida Bar, including use of vLex Fastcase. Moreover, Westlaw and LexisNexis offer individual subscriptions, at least one of which is usually purchased by every lawyer or firm. These typically suffice to cover the needs of normal, daily legal practice in Florida.

 

But complicated cases and esoteric legal issues often encounter “out-of-plan” obstacles when resort is made to the usual electronic toolboxes. More advanced data plans are needed then, and the RJS Law Library has data sets far broader than what is available to the typical legal practitioner. These data sets include access, for example, to just about every law review periodical in the country, as well as sensitive personal background records and financial information for collections and credit work. That personal information is not accessible to the general public — only members of the SLBA.

 

Local SLBA members may also enter the library 24/7, with unlimited after-hours access, using a special door card issued through the courthouse security office. The value of such unlimited access can easily be appreciated by a lawyer facing last-minute preparation for an emergency hearing coming up the next day.

 

Further, the library website provides quick, convenient links to courts, governmental offices and agencies, legal research portals, law schools, public records, and municipal and county codes and ordinances. Local rules and administrative orders are likewise available.

 

Anyone needing quick access to a printed copy of a case, statute, or regulation may simply call the librarian and request immediate transmission.

 

The library also provides classroom and conference facilities and small enclosed research areas, which may be reserved for mediations, depositions, client and witness conferences, and CLE presentations.

 

B. What the RJS Law Library Means for Equal Justice and the Rule of Law

 

The law library is important to lawyers. But its value to the general public is far greater, for it gives life and meaning to one of the most basic values underpinning the community: equal justice under law — without which the Rule of Law and democratic values become illusory.

 

Imagine losing your child because you’re not represented in a custody hearing. Or losing your home because no lawyer could be found to speak for you in a foreclosure proceeding. Or, indeed, losing everything you own to your creditors.

 

Unfortunately, that’s daily reality in our system of justice:

 

“Across family-law, housing, and debt cases — the three broad buckets that make up most of the civil docket — people without lawyers don’t tend to do very well. They fail to take advantage of legal protections for tenants and end up losing their apartments. They stay in bad marriages, pay exorbitant interest because of bad credit, [and] have their paychecks garnished for debts they don’t owe. A pair of studies from Maryland found that mothers represented by lawyers were nearly twice as likely to retain custody of their children and more than twice as likely to be granted the protective orders they asked for in family court.”

— Rowan Moore Gerety, “Who Needs Lawyers,” The New York Times Magazine (April 20, 2025), p. 32.

 

In many instances, the damage — while very real — isn’t measurable, where “… people with problems they could address in court often don’t even try, because they lack the knowledge, money, or wherewithal. Often, they simply let them fester, so that the damage corrodes their health and relationships or shows up in the churn of lost jobs and housing.” Id.

 

While such reality is a compelling reason to seek legal representation, the fact is that most people are on their own:

 

“In our states, more than 80% of the litigants appear without lawyers in matters as important as evictions, mortgage foreclosures, child custody and child support proceedings, and debt collection cases.”

— The Justice Index, National Center for Access to Justice, Cardozo Law School.

 

This aligns closely with experience in Florida courts. In 2019, Friends of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library conducted a survey of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties, with cooperation from their respective Clerks of Court. The survey determined that, when all civil cases in these counties were collectively averaged, 72% of civil defendants were unrepresented. In St. Lucie County specifically:

 

• 41% in Circuit Civil

• 88% in County Civil

• 88% in Small Claims

 

Contrast that reality with the aspirational ideal voiced by Justice Lewis Powell, Jr.:

 

“Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the façade of the Supreme Court building; it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists… it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status.”

 

The Rupert J. Smith Law Library helps close that gap, existing for the express purpose of ensuring that all residents may obtain equal access to knowledge of their rights, remedies, and obligations under the law.

 

This is the library’s Mission Statement:

 

“The Rupert J. Smith Law Library of St. Lucie County strives to provide equal access to the courts through a strong collection of legal materials to serve all of the residents, bar, and judiciary of St. Lucie County. Additionally, the law library provides community meeting rooms and study space for all patrons.”

 

Anyone — not just lawyers, but students, parents facing custody issues, tenants and homeowners facing foreclosure, or any resident needing legal information — may enter the library and receive cost-free assistance in locating the materials necessary to protect their rights.

 

Our freedom as a democratic society ultimately depends on such access. As James Madison wrote to W.T. Barry on August 4, 1822:

 

“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

 

While the RJS Law Library is not the only channel through which legal information can be obtained, it is the only place staffed by trained legal information professionals who know the sources, understand how to use them, and can guide patrons to the appropriate materials. General-purpose public libraries cannot offer that level of expertise.

 

C. For Those Who Want to Support the Law Library’s Mission

 

For lawyers and members of the public wishing to support the goals and purposes outlined above, the Friends of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library, Inc. (“Friends”) provides that opportunity. Friends is an independent not-for-profit corporation dedicated to:

 

“Promoting, aiding, developing, and encouraging the use of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library; providing and aiding in the collection and care of materials and appliances relating thereto; and providing legal resources to the general public, including the indigent and poor.”

— Art. III(A), Articles of Incorporation.

 

Annual memberships may be acquired at the individual rate of $50 or the firm rate of $100 through the library’s website. All Friends members are warmly encouraged to participate on equal footing with the Directors in conducting the business of Friends.

 

D. Conclusion

 

In sum, St. Lucie County, unlike most counties, possesses a law library offering unique advantages to both local bar members and the general public. For lawyers, the library provides a much wider range of legal information than is typically within reach of the usual practitioner. For nonlawyers, it offers equal access to justice — even without representation — by enabling residents to obtain the knowledge necessary to understand their rights, remedies, and obligations.

 

Law libraries embody the best ideals of the legal profession and help make democratic life possible. They merit our continuing support, which may be provided through an annual membership in the Friends of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library, accessible through the library’s website.

 

James T. Walker

President, Friends of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library