Bar News - February 4, 2005
Coos County's Lawyer Ranks Shrink Faster Than Population
The 1992 edition of the Green Book, a privately published legal directory for New Hampshire, reported 41 attorneys in Coös County that year, including Vickie M. Bunnell, the Colebrook attorney and part-time district court judge who was shot to death outside her Colebrook law office in 1997. Of that number, 5 were part-time members of the judiciary
This year, the latest edition of the Green Book shows only 26 attorneys based in Coös County, and of that number, six are part-time members of the judiciary. Three of the attorneys listed have primary offices in other parts of the state and maintain part-time offices only in Coös.
A decline from 41 to 26 represents a 36 percent drop in the number of attorneys with offices in the county. By contrast, the population of Coös County, from 1992 to 2002, fell by roughly 2 percent, slipping from 34,553 to 33,893.
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