THE LOCATION OF SOLICITORS
| Date | 01 March 1973 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1973.tb01360.x |
| Author | Ken Foster |
| Published date | 01 March 1973 |
THB
LOCATION
OF
SOLICITORS
A
OEEAT
deal of attention
is
currently being given
to
the variations
between different areas of the country in the provision of social and
medical services.’ Much of this recent research starts from the
premise that available resources should be distributed in accordance
with need. This concept has been termed
“
territorial justice,” and
Bleddyn Davies defined
it
thus
:
“
The statistical definition of territorial justice is a high correla-
tion between indices
of
resourceuse, or standards of provision,
and an index measuring the relative needs of an area’s popula-
tion for the service.
. .
.
Territorial justice is a necessary condi-
tion, but not
of
course a sumcient condition, for achieving
social justice.”
If
the provision of legal services is to be considered as a social
service,
it
becomes important to establish both the nature and extent
of the community’s legal needs and the distribution of the services
which are purporting to supply those needs. The quantity and the
distribution
of
society’s existing legal needs are difficult to deter-
mine, but an equal allocation
of
legal services throughout the country
can only be justified if there is a corresponding equal distribution of
legal need. However, until research is conducted into the distribu-
tion of legal need, both met and unmet,
it
must be assumed that
legal services ought to be evenly spread throughout the country.
It
follows that, although the legal profession is not the only source
of legal aid and assistance, solicitors should as far as possible be
equally available to an individual wherever he lives.
Information as to the geographical distribution of solicitors is
not readily available, and although some limited research has been
doneY3 there are
no
comprehensive, recent statistics. To remedy this
lack of information, research was conducted in order to produce
accurate figures of the current distribution of solicitors and their
offices. The basic source used was the
1971
Law
List.
This is
produced by the Law Society under statutory authority and only
those solicitors practising in England and Wales who have been
issued with a practising certificate
for
1971
can be in~luded.~ The
1
Bleddgn Davies,
Social Needs and Resources
in
Local Seruices
(1968);
M.
H.
Cooper
&
A.
J.
Culyer,
Regional Inequalitie~, and the National Health
Service
(1371);
R.
G.
S.
Brown
&
C. Walker, The distribution of medical
manpower in
Problems and Progress
in
Medical Care, Fifth Series,
1971
(G.
McLachlan, ed.).
2
Social Needs and Resources in Local Services,
p.
16.
3
Abel-Smith
and
Stevens,
In
Seardh
of
Justice,
p.
162;
Zander,
Lawgers and
the Public Interest,
p.
212.
4
Entv
in
the
Law
List
is
in itself sufficient evidence of
B
solicitor’s right
to
practis+Solicitors Act
1965,
8.
4.
158
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