About five years after horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing eased the process of extracting oil and gas from the Bakken shale rock formation that stretches from North Dakota to Canada, the state is now the country’s second-leading oil producer. But the booming oil business has put well-documented strains on nearly every aspect of the state’s infrastructure. It needs more roads, bridges, and housing for the increased traffic and population surge.
The flood of people and new businesses into Western North Dakota has also created an avalanche of legal matters that are overloading many of the 2,300 lawyers in the state, which has one of the nation’s lowest lawyer-per-capita rates. Criminal and civil cases have increased more than 30 percent in the Northwest judicial divisionin the heart of the Bakken oil fieldssince 2006. Probate and trust matters that determine ownership of now-valuable land and mineral rights have surged 169 percent. A draft report released in August by the North Dakota Bar Association says the state is suffering from a lawyer shortage that’s nearing crisis levels. Oil and gas companies have snatched up private practice lawyers, leaving property owners and residents scrambling for legal representation.
