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52 Osgoode Hall L. J. 9 (2014-2016)

handle is hein.journals/ohlj52 and id is 1 raw text is: No Lawyer for a Hundred Miles? Mapping the New Geography of Access of Justice in Canada1 JAMIE BAXTER & ALBERT YOON* Recent concerns about the geography of access to justice in Canada have focused on the dwindling number of lawyers in rural and remote areas, raising anxieties about the profes- sion's inability to meet current and future demands for localized legal services. These concerns have motivated a range of policy responses that aim to improve the education, training, recruitment and retention of practitioners in underserved areas. We surveyed lawyers across Ontario to better understand their physical proximityto clients and how, if at all, that proximity promotes access to justice. We find that lawyers' scope of practice varies based on a number of factors, and in several areas of law lawyers serve clients beyond their immediate locality. Our results suggest that debates about the geography of access should be premised on the goal of territorial justice as an equitable distribution of legal services rather than a narrower emphasis on the equal distribution of lawyers. La geographie changeante de Vacces a [a justice au Canada entraine aujourd'hui de nouvelles preoccupations, car de moins en moins d'avocats frequentent les campagnes et les regions eloignees du pays, ce qui fait douter de Vaptitude de [a profession a remplir les besoins actuels et futurs des services juridiques en region. Ces preoccupations motivent une gamme de politiques qui ont pour objectif d'ameliorer [a conscientisation, [a formation, le Assistant Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University; Professor of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. The authors thank the Law Society of Upper Canada for its assistance in distributing the authors' survey to its members. Yoon thanks the Law School Admissions Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous research support. All errors are the authors' responsibility. 1. Our title alludes to a recent article in the New York Times. See Ethan Bronner, No Lawyer for 100 Country Miles, So One Rural State Offers Pay, The New York Times (9Apil2013) Al.