Charles Sturt University (CSU) will host the 3^rd National Rural Law and Justice Conference in Orange on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 July.

CSU Professor of Jurisprudence Steve Redhead said the theme of the conference is 'Reframing Rurality: Driving Innovation in Rural Justice'.

"This is a national conference with a fantastic program," Professor Redhead said.

"The aim of the conference to achieve equal access to justice across Australia by rethinking ways of improving access and providing the opportunity to discuss the challenges, prospects and future focus.

"The University invites legal practitioners, those in the rural justice field, and local and regional people to attend. Locals are also welcome to attend just the conference dinner on the evening of Friday 3 July."

Legal practitioners will be able to claim units of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (CPD) for attending the conference.

Professor Redhead said rural, regional and remote Australians can face significant barriers to accessing legal services.

"These barriers are not only geographic, such as the distance to access a legal service and the cost," he said. "They can be cultural, based on generally lower levels of educational attainment, higher levels of lower socio-economic populations, higher proportions of Indigenous Australians and people with disabilities.

"At the same time, there remain challenges around the recruitment, retention and availability of qualified and experienced lawyers in regional, rural and remote areas, and the availability of services such as community legal centres."

The full program, more information and online registration for the 3^rd National Rural Law and Justice Conference is on the conference website. Information for potential sponsors of the conference can be found here.