News & Updates

IAALS’ Court Compass project is all about incorporating user-centric design into courts’ reform process to engage and empower litigants in creating solutions and to help improve their trust and confidence in the legal system. The results of IAALS’ model workshops were just released in a new report, titled Redesigning Divorce: User-Driven Design for a Better Process.

Small and mid-size business owners struggle with access to justice issues just as individuals do, with real ramifications for their businesses and their communities. Through the US Justice Needs project, IAALS will be surveying businesses, from small to large, so that we can better understand justice needs from their perspective. 

IAALS is excited to announce the creation of a new Advisory Committee in support of its US Justice Needs project, which is conducting research to assess the justice needs of people and businesses in the United States. The Advisory Committee will inform the work of the project, including assisting in tailoring HiiL’s individual survey for administration in the United States and developing a survey for businesses.

In late September, the Indiana Supreme Court announced the creation of the Indiana Innovation Initiative. One of the initiative’s two subgroups, the Family Law Taskforce, will consider the Family Justice Initiative Principles supported by IAALS in order to improve the way Indiana’s courts handle domestic relations cases.

In the first-ever, broad-based research of its kind, IAALS is partnering with HiiL to assess the justice needs of people and businesses in the United States. The issue of access to justice is broader and deeper in our society than has historically been recognized. What we learn will provide the insight we need to reform the American legal system and tailor services to meet the needs of all users.

​In June, the National Center for States Courts released the second in a series of evaluations of civil justice reform demonstration pilot projects around the country. The report details efforts in the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Illinois, located in McHenry County, where the pilot primarily focused on implementing civil case management teams, tools, technology, and the pathways approach.

The National Center for States Courts has released the first in a series of evaluations of civil justice reform demonstration pilot projects around the country. The pilot, in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, focused on implementing civil case management teams (CCMTs)—an innovative court staffing model that delegates case management responsibilities across a team of judges and staff.

It is no secret that divorce poses significant problems for those who go through the legal process. The adversarial nature of the legal process can put people at odds with one another and the courts are not well-positioned to provide emotional and future-planning support. IAALS has released a new report detailing the evaluation of our out-of-court model aimed at addressing these challenges for families with children.

The best lawyers are not the ones that leave “no stone unturned” but rather they are the ones who know which stones are critical to the outcome of the dispute. This type of professional judgment lies at the core of every successful litigator, and this message is reinforced loud and clear in IAALS’ Recommendations for Improving Dispositive Motions Practice in State and Federal Courts.

In December 2018, NCSC issued its Final Report for the Arizona Superior Court’s three-year Commercial Court Pilot Program, which provides a formal analysis of the impact of the Commercial Court in cases not involving emergency relief, and offers additional recommendations to help streamline the now permanent Commercial Court.

As state courts around the country have been responding to the Conference of Chief Justices' 2016 Call to Action for civil justice reform, IAALS, NCSC, and NCJFCJ also have been focused on developing companion recommendations for evaluating and improving the way courts handle domestic relations cases, which have just been released.

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.

“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. 

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.

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.