News & Updates

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 happy to welcome Colorado Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janice B. Davidson (Ret.) as she takes on her role as Senior Advisor at IAALS. Chief Judge Davidson will be involved with all of IAALS’ initiatives to some extent, but will focus her time primarily on the Quality Judges Initiative, beginning in January 2014.

The Task Force appointed by the Texas Supreme Court to recommend rules to promote “the prompt, efficient, and cost-effective resolution of civil actions” in response to H.B. 274 was unable to come to an agreement about whether the process should be mandatory for cases under $100,000 or merely voluntary. As a result, the Task Force submitted two separate sets of rules. 

At Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, we highlight the work of professors, the needs of the profession and, increasingly, the experiences of the law students who take law classes that rise to the Carnegie model. In the February edition of the Denver Bar…

Courts across the country continue to exhibit incredible flexibility in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders have been enacted in many parts of the country, judges and lawyers alike are looking for ways to keep court cases and processes moving. 

The National Jurist has named its top 60 law schools that offer practical training, including a number of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Consortium schools. The rankings were determined by the number of clinic positions per enrollment, the number of field placements or externships per enrollment, the number of simulation courses per enrollment, and additional information about practical training offerings.

The house of representatives voted to abolish the Kansas Commission on Judicial Performance and end the state’s judicial performance evaluation program. While House Democrats believe the program provides important information to voters about judges, Republicans questioned its impartiality since all evaluated judges have been recommended for retention.

The legacy of racism that blights our criminal justice system also creates inequities in our society more broadly. IAALS joins others in this process of listening, reflecting, and recommitting ourselves to the goals of equity and inclusion, because they are central to our vision of a justice system that works for all people.

The family justice system in England and Wales is undergoing its largest changes in 25 years, including a new, single Family Court to replace the three separate tiers of court that previously dealt with family proceedings. Under the new plan, a number of law centers will open throughout the country and employ law students to help divorcing couples walk through the legal process before they go to court.

Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader, who last year unveiled the Model Order on E-Discovery Cases developed by the Federal Circuit Advisory Council's E-Discovery Committee, recently told a conference of intellectual property lawyers that "more…

Courts around the country are focused on staying open to ensure access to justice is available; however, with so many doing so much, we need to ensure cross-pollination of these varied ideas by sharing knowledge and combining our collective intellectual capacity across the various silos within our system.

Why do you obey the law? Because you are afraid of the consequences if you don't? Or perhaps because it is the right thing to do? How about, because you believe that "government has the right to dictate to [you] proper behavior"? The third option—believing that government's laws and legal process have legitimacy—may be the keystone to building the most effective legal system.

One student’s exploration of whether the phrase “think like a lawyer” has lost a uniform definition, if not all meaning altogether. Here’s her take on this “flurry of semantical, romantical fun,” inspired by Judith Welch Wegner’s Reframing Legal…

The last twelve months have been an unforgettable crucible. At IAALS, we have taken a hard look at our work and what it will take to build a better legal system for everyone. Our 2020 Annual Report illustrates our ability to foster the change we need—and our capacity to do even more.

A recent ABA survey report found that self-help legal centers around the nation "are a vibrant and effective resource" to those they serve. Receiving responses from nearly half of those surveyed, the ABA found that self-help legal centers now serve approximately 3.7 million people each year and mostly provide legal service in the area of family law, including child support, domestic violence, and guardianships.

The April 2012 edition of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers newsletter is now available. Sign up for this and other IAALS newsletters here.

In August, IAALS and its partners continued the Redesigning Legal Speaker Series with a panel exploring how lawyers and other legal professionals can help to solve access-to-justice problems using new advances in technology—while building sustainable practices at the same time.

Three Colorado jurists who were identified as outstanding case managers in Working Smarter, Not Harder: How Excellent Judges Manage Cases have shared their expanded views of successful practices in an article for The Colorado Lawyer. The judges cover some of the more practical suggestions they have for fellow judges, as well as attorneys.

Invoking what is known as the “Thurmond Rule,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that no votes would be allowed on nominees to the federal courts of appeals until after the November election. Nominees to the district courts will continue to be considered until at least early September.

This year, the ABA marks Law Day 2022 with the theme of "Toward a More Perfect Union: The Constitution in Times of Change." Today, we should reflect on the shortcomings of our justice system and worry about the threats to democracy and the rule of law. But we should also celebrate the strides that have been made and the promise ahead.