Many jurisdictions around the country have implemented alternative processes that are designed to provide litigants with speedy and less expensive access to civil trials. These programs generally involve a simplified pretrial process and a shortened trial on an expedited basis. This new resource offers a summary chart of the various programs nationwide and specific details for each.

Earlier this year, a local news channel praised the University of Miami's Health and Elder Law Medical Legal Partnership in a piece entitled "Joining Forces.” The clinic, run in part by JoNel Newman of the University of Miami School of Law (an ETL Consortium school), takes an innovative approach to treating the legal and medical issues patients face when seeking care by assigning both a medical student and law student to each case.

One of my primary responsibilities as Counsel to the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court is to start and maintain dialogue among Colorado's law schools, bench, and bar in an effort to find and promote commonality among their efforts to improve our state's legal profession. Naturally, then, I was interested in attending the 2013 Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers conference, which sought to connect the legal academy and members of the legal profession.

Over the summer, the Tennessee legislature declined to renew the state's judicial nominating commission, which was used to recommend well-qualified candidates for appellate judgeships to the governor. Instead, lawmakers chose to let Tennesseans weigh in on the issue in 2014. The judicial selection process appeared to be in limbo in the interim, but Republican Governor Bill Haslam has acted to fill the gap, creating a screening panel by executive order.

Much of the work on core competencies for entry-level lawyers has focused on large firms, often because it has been harder to collect this information from small firms. This is a challenge because small and medium firms continue to be major destinations for law school graduates. Today, in an open letter to law schools, longtime solo, Carolyn Elefant, demanded that law schools teach students to be employable by solos and small firms.

IAALS is honored to be featured front and center in the Fall 2013 edition of The Bulletin, a publication of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The article chronicles the six year journey of collaboration, cooperation, and determination undertaken by IAALS and the ACTL to reform our country's ailing civil justice system. The national response to our organizations' joint efforts proves that meaningful change is not only possible, but within reach.

As Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts celebrates its 25th year, supporters of moving from partisan elections to commission-based appointment of the state's appellate judges are optimistic that the time is finally right. That optimism stems largely from two recent scandals that have plagued the state supreme court. The reform legislation also enjoys support on both sides of the aisle.

Judge Kevin Burke, Minnesota District Court Judge and member of the IAALS Board of Advisors, has written about the ideas and lessons of Roscoe Pound, former Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916-1936, and what the legal community today can learn from his legacy. For example, Pound discussed a major misperception on the part of the public—the idea that the administration of justice comes easy to those in charge.

Over the past few years, IAALS has been tracking the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project, along with numerous other rules projects across the country. These efforts are aimed at providing greater access to civil justice and at better achieving the goals of a just, speedy, and inexpensive civil justice system. This new publication explores various factors for the successful creation and implementation of new rules and processes, laying the groundwork for future developments.

As many have recognized, electronic discovery has arrived in the state courts. While there are abundant resources available on the topic of e-discovery, for many judges the question is, “Where to begin?” To answer that question, IAALS now offers this new toolkit for state court judges, which pulls together some of the best resources available. Whether you are an expert or a novice with e-discovery issues, this collection of resources will be useful in your cases.

Thanks to a working group of judges and lawyers, California's Administrative Office of the Courts now offers a required course on judicial ethics for incumbent judges and attorney challengers running for judicial office. Judicial candidates must complete the course within 60 days of filing for office, creating a campaign committee, or receiving a campaign contribution.

Recent efforts to alter the process for selecting Kansas' appellate judges have been covered frequently of late. Supporters of increased funding for public schools are concerned about the impact this effort may have on a school finance case that is currently before the supreme court. Specifically, they worry that Governor Brownback and conservative legislators may be pushing selection changes to "put the court on notice."