In an effort to meet legal needs and offset lower numbers of attorneys both living and working in rural parts of Kansas, the Kansas Court System has developed the Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee.
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert says attorneys are needed in and out of the courtroom, and the shortage of lawyers is keenly felt in rural areas.
At the time the committee was formed last week, 80 percent of the state’s active attorneys live in six urban counties. Those counties, Douglas, Johnson, Leavenworth, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte, now represent over half the state’s total population of over 2.9 million people. This means 1,500 attorneys to serve 1.25 million people in 99 counties.
The ratio of attorneys to residents is sobering:
*The 5th Judicial District (Lyon and Chase counties) has one attorney for every 827 residents
*The 2nd Judicial District (Wabaunsee County) has one attorney for every 614 residents
*The 4th Judicial District (Coffey and Osage counties) has one attorney for every 865 residents
*The 8th Judicial District (Morris County) has one attorney for every 1,130 residents
*The 13th Judicial District (Greenwood County) has one attorney for every 558 residents
By contrast:
*The 7th Judicial District (Douglas County) has one attorney for every 181 residents
*The 10th Judicial District (Johnson County) has one attorney for every 178 residents
Led by Kansas Supreme Court Justice KJ Wall, the new body involves 35 members, including attorneys, judges, lawmakers, state administrators and law professors. There is a lot of work ahead for the committee before it submits its initial recommendations — including the potential for legal changes, regulation changes or rules changes — by the summer of 2024. The committee plans to study population trends and matters related to attorneys or other legal professions supporting court and “court-adjacent” programs. The committee will also look for the impact of population density and unmet legal needs. Part of the work also includes exploring recruitment and retention options.
More information about the Rural Justice Initiative Committee is online at kscourts.org. The official website has been down for close to a week after a server was compromised. The impact of the website crash has been limited to the judicial branch’s activity to post information online and has not affected online services, court networks or court users.
