By Alyssa Clark, ILS Research Intern.
Take Home Message: The need for legal services is often great in rural areas, yet their availability is scarce.
Full report: H. Wandler (2015). “Spreading Justice to Rural Montana: Rurality’s Impacts on Supply and Demand for Legal Services in Montana.” Montana Law Review. 76 (2), pp. 225-55. Professor Wandler is Associate Professor at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law, University of Montana.
Link: https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/mlr/vol77/iss2/2/. If you have trouble accessing the report Andy Davies may be able to help.
Sample: All 22 judicial districts in Montana. Various data from 16 of those districts are presented in the article.
The Details: The supply of legal services in rural areas is lower simply because there are fewer attorneys. Using data on the number of people, number of qualified attorneys, and geographic area covered by each of Montana’s judicial districts, Wandler showed rural districts do indeed have fewer attorneys available per person (see table below with sample data.) Naturally, rural attorneys also had a much larger area to cover than their urban colleagues.
The demand for legal services in rural areas also appears to be low, however. Survey data suggest rural residents do not perceive themselves to have many legal needs. Other objective indicators suggest that those needs are in fact extensive. The author speculates rural residents may prefer to resolve conflicts informally, and are less likely to resort to courts. This lack of demand for legal services may in turn reduce the incentive for attorneys to work in rural areas, and account for the results she sees.
The author also recognizes that attorneys may not wish to work in rural areas because of the professional and social isolation they fear they would suffer and their inability to find work necessary to repay student loans. She suggests, however, that law schools can overcome these barriers by encouraging practice in rural areas through clinical programs, work placements, and the fostering of an ‘ethic of service’.
Take Home Message: The need for legal services is often great in rural areas, yet their availability is scarce.
Full report: H. Wandler (2015). “Spreading Justice to Rural Montana: Rurality’s Impacts on Supply and Demand for Legal Services in Montana.” Montana Law Review. 76 (2), pp. 225-55. Professor Wandler is Associate Professor at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law, University of Montana.
Link: https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/mlr/vol77/iss2/2/. If you have trouble accessing the report Andy Davies may be able to help.
Sample: All 22 judicial districts in Montana. Various data from 16 of those districts are presented in the article.
The Details: The supply of legal services in rural areas is lower simply because there are fewer attorneys. Using data on the number of people, number of qualified attorneys, and geographic area covered by each of Montana’s judicial districts, Wandler showed rural districts do indeed have fewer attorneys available per person (see table below with sample data.) Naturally, rural attorneys also had a much larger area to cover than their urban colleagues.
The demand for legal services in rural areas also appears to be low, however. Survey data suggest rural residents do not perceive themselves to have many legal needs. Other objective indicators suggest that those needs are in fact extensive. The author speculates rural residents may prefer to resolve conflicts informally, and are less likely to resort to courts. This lack of demand for legal services may in turn reduce the incentive for attorneys to work in rural areas, and account for the results she sees.
The author also recognizes that attorneys may not wish to work in rural areas because of the professional and social isolation they fear they would suffer and their inability to find work necessary to repay student loans. She suggests, however, that law schools can overcome these barriers by encouraging practice in rural areas through clinical programs, work placements, and the fostering of an ‘ethic of service’.
| District Type |
Population | Square Miles |
Attorneys | Residents-per-Attorney |
Square Miles per Attorney |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural | 9,396 | 6,869.00 | 6 | 1,566 | 1,145 |
| Rural | 29,479 | 22,921.50 | 25 | 1,179 | 917 |
| Rural | 18,451 | 14,512.00 | 20 | 923 | 726 |
| Urban | 97,308 |
2,634.00 | 332 | 293 | 8 |
| Urban | 116,941 | 3,841.50 | 628 | 186 | 6 |
| Urban | 155,634 |
2,648.80 | 531 | 293 | 5 |
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