Monthly Archives: September 2025

The ability of individuals to resolve their legal problems is essential for a just society as well as a fundamental principle underpinning the rule of law. To successfully navigate and resolve legal issues, people may require support throughout the process. This support can range from information, guidance and signposting at one end of a spectrum, to legal advice and representation at the other. Can everyone access the right support, at the right time, in the right way, and in the right (rural) place for them? Jessica Sellick investigates.  

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Access to justice is a fundamental principle underpinning the rule of law and is at the heart of our justice system. A legal need is defined as ‘when an individual needs support to deal with a legal issue’. A met legal need occurs ‘when the legal need is resolved, and the help was useful’. Conversely, an unmet legal need is ‘when the legal need is not resolved adequately because there was no support, or the support was not helpful’. What factors influence individuals to seek help, and where do they turn for assistance? And how can we deliver better support to people with legal needs in rural areas?  

What legal issues do people experience? A legal issue is defined as ‘a problem, issue or question that can be resolved or answered by law’. YouGov, the Legal Services Board (LSB), and The Law Society conducted legal surveys in 2019 and 2023 to determine whether individuals had encountered any of 34 different types of legal issues in the past four years, how they managed those issues, and their reasons for seeking or not seeking help. The 2023 survey revealed that 66% of respondents had experienced at least one legal issue in the past four years, a 2% increase since the 2019 survey. The most common legal issues were related to employment, finance, welfare and benefits (28%), a consumer problem (26%), wills, trust and probate (26%), property, construction and planning (25%), and conveyancing and residential (18%). While the prevalence of property, construction and planning declined compared to the 2019 survey, the proportion of individuals reporting experiences with wills, trusts and probate increased.  

Some of these trends are further supported by an investigation conducted by the law firms Hogan Lovells, Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland and Mischon de Reya which confirmed growing levels of unmet legal need in MPs’ constituency surgeries. This survey builds on an earlier study conducted five years go and highlights the ongoing challenges MPs face in securing free legal services for their constituents. Between October 2022 and March 2023, the firms attended 37 MPs’ surgeries and observed 279 appointments across Birmingham, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Greater Manchester, London, Newbury, Oxford and Reading. They also distributed an online survey to MPs and case workers, receiving 98 responses. The research revealed that 75% of the constituent appointments were related to legal issues. The most common legal issues observed were housing (46%) followed by immigration and asylum (16%) – these were also the most common types of legal issues identified in their 2016 study.  

At a local level, in March 2025, the Central England Law Centre published research on local legal needs. The study was co-produced with seven organisations in Coventry and highlights the complex clusters of problems people experience. There were more than 130 law-related problems among 35 participants. Again, the most common problems were welfare benefits and housing problems. Clusters were linked to underlying financial precarity and poverty, disability, changes in health, and family breakdown.   

The issues highlighted by these studies encompass both civil and criminal law, and are not always legal problems in the traditional sense. They may also include other issues that have the potential to escalate into problems necessitating professional advice.    

When you need professional legal help, where do you turn? LawWorks suggests considering whether you have legal expenses insurance, checking if you are eligible for legal aid, or seeking out a legal advisor with expertise in the relevant area of law. If you do not qualify for legal aid and are unable to afford professional legal assistance, LawWorks recommends seeking support from various organisations or advice networks.  

As part of its agenda to improve access to justice, the Legal Services Board (LSB) aims to ensure most households have legal expenses insurance or other mechanisms that enable them to access a wide range of legal services free at the point of need by 2031. In 2021, the LSB published research with consumers to understand their perceived need for legal expenses insurance (LEI) and to explore the factors that encouraged or dissuaded them from taking out LEI policies. The study involved 46 adults and found that, while the majority had experienced some form of dispute, few had used legal services to address these issues. Most participants did not understand what LEI is, or what it covers. Amongst those who had LEI, the main drivers for purchase were the peace of mind it provided or previous direct experience of needing legal cover. For those without LEI, the primary reasons for not having it included assumptions about affordability, distrust in the policy’s ability to pay out, and a lack of understanding of what was or was not covered.   

Individuals in need of financial assistance for legal advice or representation in England and Wales may be eligible for assistance through the legal aid scheme. Legal aid is available for certain serious civil and criminal matters, provided the individual meets the financial eligibility criteria. In some instances, recipients of legal aid may be required to contribute towards their legal costs. Typically, a legal advisor will apply for legal aid on their client’s behalf.  

In January 2023, the Ministry of Justice launched the Review of Civil Legal Aid (RoCLA) which examined how services are procured, and assessed the system’s effectiveness for users, providers and the wider justice system. The review encompassed four workstreams: the market, international comparators, the experiences of users and providers, and data about the solicitors and barristers who do civil legal aid.  

In January 2025, the Ministry of Justice consulted on increasing civil legal aid fees for immigration and housing law work. The consultation response, published in July 2025, was accompanied by an announcement that the Ministry of Justice will uplift the rates paid for all housing and immigration legal aid work. This will result in an overall spending increase of 24% and 30% respectively, amounting to an additional £20 million per year once fully implemented. This marks the first increase since 1996.  

Prior to this, in November 2024, the Government announced additional funding for criminal legal work in police stations and youth courts, totalling £18.5 million and £5.1 million respectively. Solicitors commuting to work in areas with fewer providers will also have their travel time reimbursed.  

However, the Law Centres Network (LCN) and its sector partners have expressed concerns that these increases do not go far enough. Some housing and immigration legal aid work will only see a 10% fee increase, which lags behind inflation. The LCN is also advocating for the increase to be extended to all areas of legal aid work, not just housing and immigration, as these areas have been similarly affected by decades-long lack of investment. While the Government has committed to implementing the increases ‘as soon as operationally possible’, the timescales for doing so remain unclear.  

The 2023 survey conducted by YouGov, LSB, and The Law Society asked respondents about the types of issues for which legal aid is currently available. It revealed that 29% of respondents were unaware of the specific issues covered by legal aid, while 49% assumed it was available for crime-related matters, and 43% believed it was available for domestic violence cases. Additionally, respondents with lower incomes were more likely to think that legal aid was not accessible to them.   

The Law Society maintains an official database of 206,401 legal professionals. Some solicitors provide initial legal advice free of charge or at a fixed rate. In certain civil cases, a solicitor may agree to work on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, whether under a conditional fee arrangement (CFA) or a damages-based agreement (DBA). To mitigate the risk of incurring the opposing party’s costs in the event of an unsuccessful case, a lawyer may recommend that a client obtain an After-the-Event (ATE) insurance policy.     

In June 2025, the LSB, Pye Tait Consulting, and Frontier Economics published research on the pricing of legal services commonly purchased by individual consumers. The research encompassed three areas of law: (i) conveyancing, (ii) divorce, and (iii) wills, trusts and probate, with five distinct scenarios. The research also identified trends between reports published in 2020 and 2024.  Researchers found that prices have increased since 2020 after accounting for inflation, and the spread of prices between firms had also widened. The study revealed that consumers do not base their decisions solely, on price; they also consider quality and the manner in which the service is delivered. Key findings include:  

• Evidence of a wide dispersion of prices: the 2025 report did not see a narrowing of price ranges for similar scenarios.   

• The spread of prices has widened: for some scenarios, particularly complex services, the spread reveals a long tail of outliers where firms claim to compete primarily on service rather than price.  

• Inflation-related forces are behind firms decisions to increase their prices in the preceding 12 months.  

• Price transparency has improved among regulated conveyancing firms subject to transparency rules. Providers who published their prices on their websites were marginally cheaper than those that did not.  

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in firms offering remote services. In some scenarios, firms requiring face-to-face contact charge significantly higher fees than those providing the service remotely.  

• The mean price of medium and larger firms is significantly higher than that of small and micro firms across the majority of the scenarios.  

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) issues guidance for regulated firms and individual freelance solicitors, mandating the publication of information on the prices and services they offer under Rule 1 of the SRA Transparency Rules. This guidance is designed to help consumers access the information they need to make informed choices about legal services providers, including understanding the potential costs. The SRA also emphasises the importance of having appropriate controls in place, encouraging firms and freelances to consider how they can make information about their services and prices more accessible, how they can innovate in the delivery of their services, whether they share information with organisations that support individuals with legal needs, and whether all staff are trained to assist people with diverse needs in accessing their services.   

While barristers typically receive instructions from solicitors, who in turn take instruction directly from clients, The Bar Council offers a public access scheme. The scheme includes a direct access portal that contains an official register of barristers.  

Several organisations provide assistance and advice on legal issues, including Citizens Advice, Advicenow, Law Centres, and trade unions, while other organisations specialise in specific legal issues such as turn2us (money), Access Social Care (social care), Action against Medical Accidents (health care), and Age UK (older people).  

Individuals also have the option to represent themselves in court without a solicitor or other legal professional. Advicenow publishes guidance to assist those who self-represent, and the charity Support Through Court offers non-legal support and guidance to people facing family or civil court proceedings without a lawyer.   

Who finds it straightforward to get legal support, and who struggles to obtain professional advice? The 2023 survey conducted by YouGov, the LSB, and The Law Society revealed that 62% of respondents with a legal issue had received assistance, equating to approximately 26 million people. This represents a four percentage decrease from the proportion who received help in 2019. Of those who sought assistance, 52% obtained professional help, while 11% received non-professional help. Notably, young people (those under 35 years of age), tended to seek help from non-professional sources such as family members and friends (18%).   

The survey examined contentious legal issues, defined as ‘legal matters that take place where there is a dispute between two or more parties, which can involve mediation, arbitrations, courts, and tribunals’. Among the respondents, 51% had a legal need, while 49% did not. Of those with a legal need, 19% had their legal need met, whereas 32% had an unmet legal need. Among those whose legal need was not met, 20% did not receive professional help,10% found the resolution process too lengthy, and 3% deemed the assistance they received inadequate. The proportion of respondents experiencing contentious issues increased by 4 percentage points compared to the 2019 survey. One-third of respondents to the 2023 survey with a contentious legal issue considered it important enough to seek help from an independent adviser. 41% of respondents who used an advisor reported that communication could have been improved by using plain and understandable language.   

23% of respondents to the 2023 survey believed COVID-19 had exacerbated their legal issues. Additionally, 26% felt that cost-of-living pressures worsened their legal problems, with this sentiment being more prevalent among individuals with a gross annual household income of £32,000 or less, compared to those earning over £60,000. Furthermore, 5% of respondents attributed their legal issue to Brexit, while 12% believed that Brexit had worsened their situation. Notably, young people and individuals from ethnic minorities were more likely than average to report that these external factors had negatively impacted their legal issues.   

An investigation conducted by the law firms Hogan Lovells, Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland and Mischon de Reya found that of the 206 constituents raising a legal issue during their appointments with their MPs, only 13% had initially instructed a lawyer. The research findings highlighted the crucial role that MPs and caseworkers play in signposting or referring their constituents to legal advice providers. However, 56% of MP caseworkers participating in the research indicated that legal advice providers in their constituencies lacked the capacity to handle asylum and immigration issues (62% of caseworkers) and housing issues (57% of caseworkers). The report recommends increasing funding and resources for advice charities to ensure they have the capacity to assist those seeking advice. Moreover, the authors suggest initiating a regular national survey of MPs on access to justice issues at five-year intervals and sharing the findings with the APPG on Access to Justice and the Speaker’s Office 

Only 5% of respondents to the 2023 survey conducted by YouGov, LSB, and The Law Society had their contentious issue resolved through a court or tribunal judgement, marking a decline of three percentage points compared to the 2019 survey. Just under one-fifth of respondents (18%) came to an agreement, 17% reported that the issue had resolved itself, and 9% decided to abandon their efforts to resolve the issue.   

Does legal advice or representation make a difference? An individual’s understanding of the nature and severity of their issue has a significant impact on whether and how they seek help. The 2023 survey conducted by YouGov, LSB, and The Law Society found those with low accessibility of justice are more likely than those with high accessibility to describe their issue as bureaucratic (21% versus 10%). For respondents who described their issue as legal in nature (15%), they were more likely than average to have received help with it (73%).  57% of respondents with a resolved legal issue felt that it was easy to deal with, which is broadly unchanged from the 2019 survey. The majority of respondents with a contentious legal issue felt the outcome was what they had hoped for (56%), better than they had hoped for (17%), or worse than they had hoped for (27%). Respondents with high accessibility to justice were more likely to say that the result of their contentious issue was better than they had hoped for. Over two-thirds (71%) with a contentious or non-contentious issue believed that the help they had received secured them a better outcome, unchanged from the 2019 survey.  

Building on these findings, research on understanding local legal needs published by the Central England Law Centre echoes some of these observations. The research found that where levels of legal knowledge were low, participants did not take any action, which was at least partially a consequence of not recognising the problem.  Researchers also identified a corelation between deprivation, socio-economic inequality, and certain legal issues (i.e., increases in the probability of experiencing domestic abuse or welfare benefits problems) and higher levels of legal need. Alongside this, the legal advice landscape in Coventry is changing, with a 70% decline in legal aid provision in the city. The research recommends investing in bottom-up, collaborative, and community-based solutions to help people to recognise and deal with problems earlier.  

Research carried out by JUSTICE, academics at the University of Sussex and Dechert LLP in June 2025 identified exactly what lawyers do in Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS) applications. The research compares the same case with and without a lawyer. The findings strongly indicate that lawyers provide evidential, legal, and strategic expertise which cannot be substituted with any other provision. Additionally, researchers identified a cohort of potential WCS claimants who were too unwell or vulnerable to consider making a claim alone, and whose relatives or friends may not be in a position, or have the necessary skills, to go through the claims process for them.   

Between 2022 and 2025, The Law Society undertook the ‘21^st Century justice’ project to explore potential reforms aimed at improving access to justice. The project highlighted the increasing pressures in the political and legal environments and called for innovative solutions and targeted investment. The final research report identifies areas where changes to Government policy and legal practice could significantly improve access to justice.  

The report presents eight key recommendations for Government:  

1. Develop an online triaging tool called ‘Solutions Explorer’ – similar to the NHS 111 service – to assist people in finding the best way of addressing their legal issues. A cost-benefit analysis found this tool could save the justice system approximately £72 million over 5-years through savings in court time by resolving cases without going to court.  

2. Establish an online dispute resolution ombudsman.  

3. Prioritise strong data standards, analysis and transparency within the pre-action online dispute resolution sector.  

4. Improve levels of trust between the Legal Aid Agency and legal aid practitioners. 

5. Regularly uprate civil legal aid fees with inflation and establish an independent legal aid fees review body.  

6. Prioritise addressing people’s needs through technology-enabled justice.  

7. Facilitate collaborative opportunities for solicitors, individuals and technology vendors.  

8. Rationalise the ombuds landscape to reduce overlap and make it easier for users to navigate.  

Moreover, the report outlines five recommendations for the legal sector:  

• Build a greater understanding of what unbundled legal services involve.  

• The SRA should take steps to collate data from firms that deliver unbundled services.  

• Solicitors should routinely ask their clients if they hold an existing LEI policy.  

• Contribute to wider efforts to increase awareness and understanding of before-the-event legal expenses insurance products.  

• Focus on unmet legal need, and solutions which can address unmet need.   

Is there a rural justice gap? What are the legal needs of rural residents and businesses? Do rural residents and businesses have different legal needs and expectations than their urban counterparts? The 2019 survey and 2023 survey conducted by YouGov, LSB, and The Law Society accounted for age, gender, region, social grade, education level, and ethnicity to represent the views of a sample designed to be nationally representative of adults living in England and Wales. The report does not contain any rural analysis. However, to support the main findings, Kudos Research was commissioned to sample 500 offline adults who are infrequent users (less than once a month) of the internet, so that an analysis of the legal needs of those who may be digitally excluded could be included. Statistically, superfast broadband is available to 89% of premises in rural areas, compared to near total coverage in urban areas, and full fibre broadband is available to 51% of all premises in rural areas, compared with 70% of premises in urban areas. It is therefore likely that some of the offline respondents, which are older (aged 65+ years), reflect some rural respondents. In the 2023 survey, 37% of offline adults reported experiencing a legal issue in the last 4-years, with 21% reporting a contentious issue and 24% a non-contentious issue. The most common issue reported related to wills, trusts and probate (25%), with all other legal issues experienced by less than 10% of offline respondents. Interestingly, those with low access to justice were more likely to describe their legal issue as health related (23% of offline adults compared to 16% of online adults). The lack of broadband and mobile coverage can heighten rural legal issues, impacting on access to online legal services, digital contracts, and remote hearings. Although evidence in the UK indicates a rise in firms offering remote services, offline adults continue to face challenges in accessing these legal services.   

In 2018, the Rural Affairs sub-committee of the Law Society of Scotland submitted evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Rural Economy, stating:  

“We consider that there is particular importance in ensuring access to justice for those in rural areas. At a basic level, many company complaints procedures are handled through digital channels which can facilitate cheap and effective resolutions for potential disputes…We have previously noted that research has identified a risk that individuals in rural areas who are eligible for legal aid may not be able to find solicitors to provide advice. These matters demonstrate the potential impact of poor connectivity upon access to justice”.   

Earlier, in the 1980s, the Access to Justice in Rural Britain project examined the factors creating ‘justice deserts’ where residents struggle to access courts, legal advice, and other essential legal support. They identified specific legal challenges faced by rural residents which related to agriculture, land ownership, and environmental regulations.  

A literature review on rural access to civil legal services, conducted by The Scottish Legal Aid Board back in November 2020, suggested that rural dwellers were less likely than their urban counterparts to encounter civil law problems. However, when they did, they were more likely to seek help from a solicitor or lawyer. More recently, in July 2025, Reuben Duffy, Policy Executive and Secretary to the Law Society of Scotland Rural Affairs Sub-Committee published a blog reflecting on his visit to The Royal Highland Show:  

“The Scottish Government’s legislative programme over the course of this Parliament has led to a lot of legislative change – since 2021, MSPs have voted through five Bills into law that directly impact the rural sector, with a further three currently before MSPs for consideration. Given the amount of new legislation, this has also been a very busy period for many legal practitioners in rural areas, a situation reflected in several conversations at the RHS… the theme of rural depopulation and its impact on the legal sector was evident throughout the event. Legal high street practices or SMEs in rural Scotland are facing increased difficulties in both hiring and retaining staff, owing to a combination of a housing shortage, lack of access to public services and poor transport links. Nationwide issues such as the cost-of-living and the energy crisis are also magnifying these challenges. The result is that clients are struggling to find the niche expertise necessary for areas of law, such as crofting, owing to an absence of highly specialised practitioners in rural specific areas of law”.  

What is the distribution of legal services, and how do rural residents access them? While there is a wealth of research on rural service provision, there is comparatively less focus on rural legal services. In academic circles, discussions have highlighted how the experiences of rural communities are often overlooked within legal scholarship. This led to the publication of a new collection of global perspectives on rural access to justice in 2023. Similarly, there have been discussions around ‘distance decay’ and ‘the friction of distance’ which describe how specific types of legal problems and clients are disproportionately affected by their distance from lawyers and courts, as well as how this compounds rural health inequalities. Additionally, the phenomenon of urbanormativity, has been identified,  describing how legal frameworks, judicial processes, and professional networks often reflect the needs and norms of urban areas, leaving rural residents with fewer resources, longer wait times, and greater difficulty accessing legal services.  

A literature review by The Scottish Legal Aid Board in November 2020, found little direct evidence of specifically rural problems in accessing legal services. However, it did highlight that rural residents have poorer access to digital services and public transport, affecting their ability to access physical services. Prior to this, researchers at Cardiff University conducted a study on community attitudes to justice in Mid Wales. This found that lawyers in rural areas see themselves as serving their local area and take a degree of ownership and responsibility that is not seen to the same extent in urban firms. Among rural residents, there was general consensus that accessing a lawyer might require travel and driving. Some residents preferred lawyers who were from the community or had a deep understanding of rural issues, particularly in agriculture. They valued the lawyer-client relationship more with a local law firm than with one from outside the area. Most residents regarded remote services via telephone or digital means positively, and some dealt with their law firm remotely already. Despite enthusiasm for online services, they also highlighted poor broadband connectivity. The most significant finding of the study was the community’s pragmatic acceptance of the decline of legal services.  

More recently, in addition to the Law Society’s 21^st century justice project, the Law Society embarked on the ‘reimaging justice in Wales 2030’ project. This highlighted the difficulties in accessing legal aid, exacerbated by the rural and dispersed nature of much of the county, poor broadband provision, and expensive public transport infrastructure, which collectively make accessing legal aid practitioners challenging.  

The final report emphasised the significant reduction in legal aid funding since 2012, coupled with Wales’s demography and geography, resulting in ‘advice deserts’, predominantly in areas of rurality and socio-economic disadvantage. The report illuminated particular challenges around physical access to legal services in large parts of rural Wales, with Powys, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and Monmouthshire being notably poorly served. In terms of recruitment, the report noted that in rural areas of Wales providers are unable to do legal aid work because they cannot recover their costs through market-based procurement which operates on a fixed fee model that fails to recognise the complexity of work required on cases across both civil and criminal legal aid.  

The project produced a series of papers with recommendations relating to:  

• The current state of access to justice in Wales, and reforms to civil and criminal legal aid.  

• Key court issues, including infrastructure, backlogs, staffing shortages, hurdles to reform, tribunal reform, and digitisation and technology.  

• The implementation of transformative legal technology that is easily accessible, understandable and implementable.  

• Planning, funding and implementing part of full devolution of justice in a coherent and timely way.  

• Work with the UK Government to recognise and support the legal sector as an essential sector.  

• The lack of contemporary data on the legal sector in Wales complicates issue identification and solution. The report advocates for rigorous and up-to-date data to better target and address identified issues.    

The most recent references to access to legal services in rural areas have centred on legal aid. On 8 July 2025, there was a parliamentary debate on access to legal aid to people in rural areas.  Sarah Sackman, Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice, emphasised that “people must be able to access legal aid, regardless of where in the country they live, and this Government has made substantial new investments. On the civil side, in housing and immigration, we have announced uplifts worth £20 million; in respect of criminal law, criminal legal aid solicitors will receive an additional £92 million a year. The Legal Aid Agency works hard to ensure that the supply of, and access to, legal aid is secured across the whole of England and Wales…Digital technology is transforming access to justice through remote consultations and Government-funded websites, such as Advicenow. I encourage her [Victoria Collins MP] constituents to access legal aid through those means, as well as through local providers”.  

From a global perspective, there have been calls within academic circles to focus specifically on addressing unmet legal needs in rural areas. For example, a Canadian review of access to justice in rural and remote areas, found that effective legal service delivery may depend on proactively addressing unmet needs, rather than being reactive to demand.  

What are the challenges and opportunities facing lawyers, solicitors and firms providing services in rural areas? The term ‘legal deserts’ has emerged in academic work, predominantly in the United States, over the past decade to describe places experiencing a shortage of lawyers, with the majority of these areas being rural. In the United States, the ratio of attorneys to population has mostly declined in rural counties over the last 25-years. To address this, law schools and bar associations have introduced programmes to make rural practice more attractive. For instance, Washburn University School of Law has a dedicated rural law programme, and South Dakota offers a financial assistance programme that provides payments over five years to attorneys who commit to practicing in underserved areas. In Arizona, the Supreme Court has an apprenticeship programme that allows law graduates who narrowly miss passing the bar exam to gain licensure through 2-years of supervised practice in a rural setting. Additionally, some States are exploring new workforce models to improve rural legal access, with paralegals providing assistance in underserved areas.  

In the UK, a blog by Law Society of Scotland Vice President Pat Thom highlighted the experiences of working in a small rural firm:  

When I say smaller I’m talking here about what used to be referred to as “high street firms”, those ranging from sole operators up to 39 solicitors. These businesses are the backbones of the communities where they’re based. They are local and accessible. Literally hundreds of them are scattered through Scottish towns and the suburbs of our major cities. In much of the country, including the Scottish Borders where I live, pretty much every firm falls into this category…For most people and businesses, it’s a smaller firm in a convenient location where they turn to if they need legal services. These everyday needs cover things such as buying their house, setting up their business, assistance with drafting their wills, sorting out the executry of a loved one, and advice on more contentious legal matters such as divorce, personal injury or employment. Even when the need is for more specialised advice than can be offered by most smaller legal firms, they’re usually able to guide the person to a larger firm that can assist with such matters and even act as the liaison ensuring that the client can have the comfort of continuing to deal with people they know and trust… A smaller firm is likely to have a close and ongoing connection to the local community and be intimately involved with things beyond the world of law. For example, invariably one or perhaps even all of the firm’s solicitors will be on the parent teacher council, the local Citizens Advice Bureau board, or the local rugby club’s committee. Local solicitors feel valued, their contributions are appreciated, and being part of the local community is also good for business. The other attraction I would suggest in practicing in a smaller firm is the variety of work… A final positive aspect for many local smaller firms is that they have easier access to the local court or solicitors located further away may may seek your help… That’s not to say that smaller firms don’t have their challenges. For example, recruitment and retention are currently a significant issue. Newly qualified solicitors appear to be focused on the bright lights of the city and the perceived glamour of the big legal firms. The winds however may be shifting, especially given the increasing emphasis on the importance of work-life balance. It goes without saying that the intimacy and accessibility of a small firm lends itself to a much better balance between work and family life. The challenges of managing a small legal firm and of complying with the Law Society’s regulations, such as those concerning financial compliance and anti-money laundering rules, are the same as managing a bigger firm but as I say are more manageable. The option of outsourcing those responsibilities is available and can be more economically viable for a small firm. Diversity and sustainability can also be more easily monitored in a small law firm”.  

While there are distinct advantages and opportunities in rural practice, it is crucial to ensure that legal education and training encompasses rural contexts, issues, and practical experience. This approach may encourage more individuals to train and practice in the countryside. This is also connected to wider issues affecting rural areas such as access to affordable housing, transport, connectivity, leisure and entertainment. Additionally, this effort should be supported by opportunities for networking and Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Furthermore, training a diverse legal workforce is also essential in rural areas where there is a shortage of legal expertise. Multi-agency and partnership working within local communities can lead to positive legal outcomes for rural residents.  

Where next? The Law Society is advocating for an end to legal aid deserts to ensure that individuals in need can access local assistance, regardless of their location, and campaigning for more funding in the areas that need it most: family law, community care, inquests, and mental health. The LSB’s research on the pricing of individual consumer legal services found that, “for the conveyancing and divorce blocks, firms based in cities are significantly more expensive than those based in towns and/or rural areas in most (albeit not all) of the five scenarios”. However, research has also shown that for people with limited financial means, gaining access to legal advice and representation in densely population urban areas is already challenging – and it is even more so for those living in remote or rural areas. For both existing and planned national surveys on access to justice, it may be beneficial to introduce ‘rural’ as a variable to better understand if rural residents can access the right support, at the right time, and in the right place for them. Is now also the time to introduce rural proofing to ensure fair and equitable access to legal services and outcomes in rural communities?   

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Jessica is a project manager at Rose Regeneration and a senior research fellow at The National Centre for Rural Health and Care (NCRHC). She is currently collating initiatives and plans to tackle economic inactivity and support people into good work; developing a community masterplan; and evaluating a heritage skills programme. Jessica also sits on the board of a charity supporting rural communities across Cambridgeshire and is a member of her local Patient Participation Group.  

She can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk  

Website: http://roseregeneration.co.uk/ https://www.ncrhc.org/  

LinkedIn: 🌈Jessica Sellick