Access to justice in rural courts

Here is the second blog post in a series of short topic snapshots, prepared by Joseph Loades, a research student with the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England.

 

The access to justice has its issues in both urban and rural communities, however, rural communities suffer inequity at a higher rate. Two of the primary issues include the lack of lawyers and legal personnel that are willing to live in rural areas, and the lack of digital technology in many rural and remote jurisdictions.

Access to justice is a principle of the rule of law. The Department’s report (Australian Law Reform Commission, 2019) states:

‘Access to justice’ is an essential element of the rule of law. In essence, access to justice refers to the ‘affirmative steps’ necessary to ‘give practical content to the law’s guarantee of formal equality before the law’. It refers to the need to ameliorate or remove barriers to access and ‘must be defined in terms of ensuring that legal and judicial outcomes are just and equitable’. It is enshrined in part 14 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). (p. 319)

The barriers concerning access to justice of legal representation and proceedings in rural communities lack equity. The inequity regarding the access to legal representation, involves both the quantity and quality of representation. It has been shown that while the rural population expands, the number of legal practices in the community decreases, leaving an overall shortage of lawyers per capita, compared to urban areas.

One problem contributing to the lack of lawyers in rural areas is the unwillingness of young personnel to live in rural areas for longer than two years, in part due to profitability, rewards and incentives.

Other reasons include the things that make rurality unattractive to young lawyers such as a lack of professional peers, recreation, and culture (Rice, 2011).

McKeon and Rice (2009) elaborate on the staffing issues, explaining the high pressure on Magistrates in rural areas due to the lack of attorneys, which increases the number of self-represented clients and professionality within the court. Other issues affecting Magistrates include the distances that need to be travelled, and the lack of modern digital technology within certain rural locations.

A major issue with accessing justice in the rural court system is the digital divide that exists between urban and rural areas. Quaintance (2022), explains the digital inequities that are developing which leave rural courts vulnerable when unable to access new technology. Issues that relate to being disconnected when attempting to access technology for remote hearings is a primary issue in areas that lack high-speed internet coverage.

The individual victim and offender accessing internet technology can also be problematic. Emailing legal documentation to the court registry, and to lawyers, can be an issue for the lower socioeconomic groups who cannot afford internet access, and those that lack internet coverage due to geographical location. These issues are problematic within the rule of law when attempting to access viable means of justice.

(Images sourced from pixels.com)

 

References

Australian Law Reform Commission. (2019). Access to Justice. https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/fr133_10._access_to_justice_issues.pdf

McKeon, J. C., & Rice, D. G. (2009). Administering Justice in Montana’s Rural Courts. Montana Law Review., 70(2), 1-20. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2030&context=mlr

Quaintance, Z. (2022, Mar 31). What’s New in Digital Equity: The Digital Divide and Access to Justice. Government Technology. https://www.proquest.com/magazines/whats-new-digital-equity-divide-access-justice/docview/2645706065/se-2

Rice, S. (2011). Access to a lawyer in rural Australia: Thoughts on the evidence we need. Deakin Law Review, 16(1), 13-46. https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.490191503284612