News & Updates

Our data from the US Justice Needs project draws from more than 10,000 surveyed individuals and illuminates the contours of the justice crisis in America—revealing that, while certain groups are disproportionately impacted by justice issues, no socio-demographic group is untouched.

IAALS provides an overview of the 2014 election outcomes that impacted state courts and judges, including a look at ballot measures, contestable elections, and retention elections.

Bill Henderson takes a look at a question that has been making the rounds: What is the answer to high student debt? After dispensing with a number of attempted answers to the question, he says: My own belief is that educational quality is the next…

A new project will help standardize a new tier of legal professionals nationally. Allied legal professionals—similar to nurse practitioners—hold a key to bringing more accessible and affordable legal help where it is needed most. IAALS seeks to facilitate the adoption of allied legal professional programs around the country and assist states in making informed decisions on how to structure these efforts.

A federal judge recently issued an order sharing her impatience with the ongoing discovery disputes of the parties. In addition to highlighting the cost and delay associated with such disputes, the court’s order also highlighted the possibilities for a different process to resolve such disputes. And, there is a clear movement across the country, at the state and federal level, toward these types of alternate processes for handling discovery motions.

Two of the three supreme court justices up for reelection face challengers in the Republican primary. One justice’s opponent is running to “expose the corrosive influence of big business on the court,” while the other justice’s opponents “want to restore integrity to the court.” The third justice up for reelection faces a Democratic challenger in the general election.

Natalie Knowlton, Zack DeMeola, and several other friends of IAALS made the ABA Journal's 2023 Class of Legal Rebels, recognizing their efforts to push the legal system and profession forward.

The 640-page Agenda Book reflects the broad range of matters currently being tackled by the federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee, which met in Washington, D.C., on April 9. Issues include the proposed rule amendments currently before the Supreme…

An error and vague wording on election-related materials could affect the outcome of a supreme court race. In King County, both the judicial primary ballot and the judicial voter pamphlet indicate that the top two vote-getting candidates in a supreme court race will advance to the general election, when in fact, this two-person race will be decided in the primary.

The ABA has proposed a resolution encouraging law firms to take a more comprehensive approach when recruiting law students, considering foundational skills alongside more traditional factors—echoing the research and recommendations in IAALS' Foundations for Practice project.

Retired Magistrate Judge John Facciola was recently featured in an interview on Legal Talk Network’s Digital Detectives. He has been referred to as one of the “rock star judges of e-discovery,” having authored over 700 opinions, many of them on e…

A hearing is scheduled for August 8 to address whether the three justices standing for retention in November should be removed from the ballot. In June, the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a suit on behalf of two Florida voters alleging that the justices violated state law by using court employees to assist in filing campaign documents.

Navigating divorce as a family can be challenging, but child-centered approaches prioritize their well-being. The Center for Out-of-Court Divorce in Denver, active from 2015 to 2017, emphasized the importance of putting children's interests first.

For the last ten years, IAALS—the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System—has worked to rebuild the civil justice system. After much work, and through collaboration with some of the very best minds in the country, we are finally reaching a critical goalpost in that mission.

The Missouri Bar’s judicial-review committee has released evaluations of the 51 judges standing for retention in November, recommending against the retention of Judge Dale W. Hood. Judge Hood also received a “not be retained” recommendation in 2008 but was retained by 54 percent of the vote.

Robert Southers, a transformative force in Ohio’s legal community, will receive IAALS' fifth annual Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award in April 2025. In just seven years since graduating from law school, Southers has made remarkable strides in improving access to justice.

On December 1, Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was amended to recognize that the rules should be construed, administered, “and employed by the court and the parties” to secure a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination in every case. This change is part of the long awaited amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and this blog is one in a series this month on the significant changes.

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, announces the release of Another Voice: Financial Experts on Reducing Client Costs in Civil Litigation, a new report prepared in collaboration with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) that evaluates the cost and delays of litigation from a new perspective: that of financial expert witnesses.

It’s that time of year again, when state legislatures are in session and lawmakers who are dissatisfied with the judiciary and some of its decisions are proposing changes in how judges are selected. This is nothing new: the O’Connor Judicial Selection Plan, which calls for commission-based appointment of judges, has been under attack in a number of states, and there seems to be a pattern to the attacks.

Recent polling indicates that the chief justice race between Judge Robert Vance Jr. and Roy Moore is a dead heat, a somewhat surprising turn of events given that Vance did not enter the race as the Democratic candidate until September. Since then, Vance has raised $500,000 and received endorsements from two prominent Alabama Republicans.