News & Updates

In an important step toward making family courts more user-friendly and less adversarial, the Conference of Chief Justices has adopted new guidelines to help courts be more responsive to the needs of families.

It was IAALS’ honor to know and work closely with Justice Daryl Hecht of Iowa, who passed away last week. His was a life well-lived, and we are all lucky to have had him in our midst.

Last October, the Federal Judicial Center released a second report on the Pilot Project Regarding Initial Discovery Protocols for Employment Cases Alleging Adverse Action, which sets forth a set of pattern discovery protocols developed by a task force of plaintiff and defense attorneys working in conjunction with IAALS.

“Justice for all.” It is a promise of American democracy and enshrined in our Pledge of Allegiance. And yet, it is not a reality. IAALS wants to change all of that. We are proud to present you with our 2018 Annual Report, which highlights our work and accomplishments within this important context.

This month IAALS is co-hosting the third in a series of webinars with the National Center for State Courts focused on providing practical information and guidance on implementing civil justice reform, titled, "Civil Justice Reform: Making Motions Practice More Effective and Efficient." The webinars are part of our three-year Civil Justice Initiative implementation project focused on providing support for on-the-ground reform through education, expert assistance, regional action planning summits, demonstration projects, and a variety of tools.

Next month IAALS will participate in an American Bar Association webinar, titled Hurricanes, Floods, and Fires, Oh My!: How to Improve Discovery in a Flood of Post-Disaster Property Insurance Lawsuits, which will also feature IAALS' initial discovery protocols for first-party insurance cases arising from disasters. 

Given the large number of people who navigate the legal system without any representation, justice system stakeholders have a duty to cut through the legalese and ensure that the system is more understandable to laypeople. To further that goal, IAALS is proud to co-sponsor a conference later this month at Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law, entitled Plain and Simple: Making the Legal System Accessible to All.

The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP), recently announced the launch of their rebranded blog, “The Access Revolution Blog: Dispatches from the Frontlines.” The goal of the blog is to serve as a collaborative platform, breaking down the disconnect between users of the court and legal stakeholders, and to offer practical solutions to address the access to justice problem in Canada. 

 In an article for The Atlantic, Deborah Copaken gives us an unvarnished account of what it is like to go through the divorce process without a lawyer and exposes the difficulties faced by many litigants who choose to represent themselves in divorce court. 

Today, IAALS announces the release of The Initial Discovery Protocols for First-Party Insurance Property Damage Cases Arising from Disasters Protocols, which provides a new pretrial procedure for cases involving first-party insurance property damage claims arising from man-made or natural disasters. 

Done right, summary judgment expedites the just resolution of a case—that’s the whole reason we have Rule 56. Our challenge as judges and lawyers is to make dispositive motion practice advance that purpose. While lawyers have traditionally filed such motions if, when, and as often as they pleased, this is a recipe for excess or—worse—abuse. Dispositive motions work best when they are part of a plan for moving the case toward resolution.

Today, IAALS announces the release of a new resource, Listen > Learn > Lead: A Guide to Improving Court Services through User-Centered Design, on how best to solicit feedback from self-represented litigants and other court stakeholders. The tools provided in this guide come from the knowledge IAALS gained through the Court Compass Project design sprint workshops.

Laura Storovich, a participant in our Colorado design sprint, shares her experience going through divorce as a self-represented litigant and her thoughts on our design sprint process.

Judges and attorneys from across the country point to dispositive motions as a critical area for reform. Today, IAALS announces the release of a new report, Efficiency in Motion: Recommendations for Improving Dispositive Motions Practice in State and Federal Courts, calling for a new paradigm for motion practice in the United States. The report is the culmination of nearly three years of research, surveys, and expert input into the opportunities for improvement and innovation.

The percentage of self-represented litigants in many state family courts is substantial. According to a new post by the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP), these self-represented parties often feel like outsiders in a court system that appears to them as a private club. 

For the fifth year in a row, the National Center for State Courts has conducted a comprehensive public opinion survey to gauge the level of public trust and confidence in the state courts. The State of the State Courts survey provides an important window into public views of our court system, including comparisons across past surveys and insights into key issues for the future of our state courts including self-representation and online dispute resolution.

Over the past two years, IAALS has been collaborating with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) on a three-year project to support the modernization and transformation of civil litigation in our state courts. In October we hosted our final meeting for the Midwest Region in Kansas City, Missouri, where over 40 states and territories attended. 

Although the idea of equal protection under the law has long been at the heart of the American legal system, equal access to justice is still not a reality for many people. Former American Bar Association President Robert J. Grey Jr. discusses this equal justice gap in a recent piece for the ABA Journal.

Courts are—to a great extent—in the business of customer service. A new IAALS report, Eighteen Ways Courts Should Use Technology to Better Serve Their Customers, provides a path forward to help courts use existing technologies to improve the user experience, particularly for those people who choose to represent themselves.

The road to recovery is arduous for disaster victims. For the increasing numbers of those victims who end up in court in an effort to recover damages, the process can be protracted and complex. Courts are quickly overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of the cases and these challenges quickly frustrate victims already struggling to rebuild. But even with a documented upswing in both the number and severity of natural disasters, it doesn’t have to be this way.