Canadian Lawyer

REGIONAL WRAP-UP Nova Scotia NeedS more rural lawyerS ing shortage of legal professionals. "We have an aging bar, and we are seeing a trend toward a depopulation of lawyers in rural Nova Scotia," says Darrel Pink, executive director of N the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in Halifax. At present, roughly 68 per cent of lawyers in the province are in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Approximately 10 per cent are in central and southwest- ern Nova Scotia. The smallest number is in Cape Breton: 7.3 per cent. In addition, Nova Scotia has one of the fastest aging populations in the country. That reality is reflected in the demographics of lawyers today: currently 29 per cent of NSBS members have been practising law for more than 27 years. In 2006, this figure was 24.5 per cent. That exodus of rural practitioners does not bode well for local communities or the legal profession, notes Tim Daley, a lawyer with Goodman MacDonald Patterson Daley in New Glasgow and NSBS first vice president. "Professional services are essential if the long-term survival of a community is to be assured and that includes lawyers. Our main concern," he adds, "is access to justice. ova Scotia's lawyers like the city life — so much so that rural areas are facing a loom- Most people want to access [legal] ser- vices in their community especially for the more routine require- ments. Once people leave their community to access these services, they rarely return." Solutions to the problem were explored at a confer- ence held late last year by the Lunenburg County Barristers Association. That county is expected to see the number of practising lawyers cut in half over the next 20 years if no action is taken. Invited to that event in Bridgewater, N.S., were students from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. "Students at the conference were inter- ested in possible rural practice but no one had ever talked with them about this. The discussion has now started," says Daley. The NSBS has also established a rural practice working group to look at specific elements of the issue including retire- ment and regulations affecting lawyers in smaller communities. The group is expected to report later this year. It has also inked an agreement with research- ers at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish to drill down into the various Transaction fee A newspaper editor at The Telegram in St. John's has set her editorial ire on a transaction fee levied by the Law Society of Newfoundland & Labrador. Real estate and civil litigation lawyers in private practice are charged the fee on every transaction but have the option of passing it along to clients. Pam Frampton doesn't like the $50 transaction fee, a position that's eminently clear from the titles of her two columns: "Unjust tax" and "Awash in cash." In her inaugural article published late last year, Frampton noted that, "[T]he public continues to subsidize private-practice lawyers' insurance premiums with the only possible benefit to us being that we might be compensated adequately if we ever had to sue for malpractice. Wow, that's a relief. We pay, they save." Sarcasm aside, there was a need for the introduction of Small communities in Nova Scotia face a looming lawyer shortage. aspects of the urban/rural divide and identify solutions. Easy answers are not anticipated. "There are no magic bullets," stresses Pink. "These are very complex issues." For rural lawyers, that complexity is magnified by regulations that require them to retain client files. "For more senior lawyers, they can have 30 to 40 years of client files. They don't know what to do with these. We essentially have an indefinite limitation period," says Daley. The province is not alone in grap- pling with the divergence between town and country lawyers, notes Pink. "This is a national issue. It is not unique to Nova Scotia." — DONALEE MOULTON donalee@quantumcommunications.ca ATLANTIC www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com FEBRUA R Y 2012 7 cr ea tes fur or C ontinued on pa g e 8 Gail J. coheN

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