Supreme Court appoints Lori Bolton-Fleming to Rural Justice Initiative Committee

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court appointed Chief Judge Lori Bolton-Fleming to the Rural Justice Initiative Committee.  

Bolton-Fleming is chief judge of the 11th Judicial District, composed of Cherokee, Crawford, and Labette counties.  

The Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee’s charge is to:  
 

• collect information and data about unmet legal needs across rural Kansas;  

• study general population trends, as well as trends related to attorneys and other legal professionals who support court and court-adjacent programs;  

• study rural incubator programs directed at professionals to determine whether those programs or elements of them may be useful to a coordinated Kansas effort;  

• examine court-based and court-adjacent programs used in other states to bolster the availability of attorney services in rural areas; 

• identify strategies to provide attorney services remotely;  

• examine existing rural attorney recruitment projects in Kansas; 

• identify options for non-traditional resolution of legal issues in rural environments; 

• assess judicial best practices that facilitate meeting legal needs across Kansas;  

• recommend necessary changes in law, regulation, or rule to improve the availability of attorney services in rural Kansas. 
   

The committee will deliver its initial recommendations to the Supreme Court by June 2024.