News & Updates

Numbers matter. As we take on some of the biggest challenges facing the civil justice system, our work depends on the number of stakeholders we bring to the table, our ability to facilitate implementation of our recommended models in numerous instances, and, of course, our careful measurement of the outcomes produced. Our 2012 Annual Report commemorates our commitment to Strength in Numbers.

A recent study by IAALS board member Russell Wheeler analyzes the politics behind the high number of judicial vacancies without nominees. Wheeler examines judicial nominations during the Obama administration and hypothesizes that delays from the White House, combined with tensions between the political parties, are responsible for the high number of long-lasting, nominee-less judicial vacancies and to the longer periods between vacancy and nomination.

A study from the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics shows "law students who found ways to exercise their top strengths in daily life were less likely to report depression and more likely to report satisfaction." With this understanding, Golden Gate University School of Law, an Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Consortium school, has published an article suggesting that experiential learning, such as through legal clinics, may increase law student happiness.

Governor Maggie Hassan signed an executive order establishing a judicial selection commission to advise her in filling vacancies on the state’s courts. Hassan is the third New Hampshire governor to create such an entity. The first was Governor Jeanne Shaheen in 2000, a response at least in part to the impeachment of a supreme court justice.

Last week, in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments to decide whether custody rights of a three-year-old girl should go to her adoptive parents or her biological father, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation. While state courts usually hear such custody disputes, this case has made its way to the Supreme Court because it involves the Indian Child Welfare Act

Under British Columbia's new Family Relations Act, unmarried couples who have lived together for more than two years will now have the same property rights as married couples. The changes went into effect March 18 and require common law spouses to "evenly split family debt and anything purchased during their relationship, including property, in the event of a break-up."

IAALS has played an important role in empowering jurisdictions to experiment with pilot projects and rules changes. Today, we are making information about these programs more accessible to all by launching Action on the Ground, an interactive map that gives users rich information about programs around the country—at a glance.

If there's one thing the people in the room at the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education can agree on today, it's that something has to give. But just what has to give? That still seems to be up for debate. In the opening session, opinions ranged nearly as wide as the topics, which included the deregulation of the profession, the deregulation of law schools, online education, US News, faculty scholarship, student expectations, consumer expectations, access to justice, and curriculum.

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education is meeting today in Indianapolis at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law. The meeting is available via live webcast here. Today the group will hear three presentations: the Current Legal Education Challenge; Licensing, Finance, and Admissions; and Delivery, Innovation, and Barriers.

A group of Republican members of the house of representatives have proposed cutting the pay of the four remaining Iowa Supreme Court justices who participated in Varnum v. Brien, a unanimous 2009 ruling that struck down a state law banning same-sex marriages.

In November, the Texas Supreme Court issued long-awaited rules for expedited actions, proposing a mandatory expedited process for cases of $100,000 or less. The Texas Supreme Court has since issued revised final rules, which became effective March 1, 2013. Despite considerable public commentary on the mandatory nature of the rules, the Expedited Actions process under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 169 remains mandatory for cases of $100,000 or less.

The Wall Street Journal has published an article examining the push for alimony reform and why it is becoming a growing movement. The main contention is that current alimony laws have the potential to force couples to remain together financially and personally until death, even after divorce. The movement is driven by the opinion that alimony laws have become unfair and outdated in a time when many recipients are healthy, college-educated, and employed.

Senators Ron Johnson (R) and Tammy Baldwin (D) have agreed to a restructuring of the commission that has been used in Wisconsin since 1979 to advise senators in recommending potential candidates for federal judge and prosecutor vacancies in the state. They have agreed to share the appointment authority equally, with each appointing three to a six-member commission.

In February, the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity presented IAALS board member Walter Sutton with the 2013 Spirit of Excellence Award, which celebrates the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession. IAALS would like to thank Sutton for his continued service on our Board of Advisors and congratulate him on the receipt of this great honor.

In the wake of a very public fee dispute involving one of the world’s largest law firms, Professor Benjamin Madison, an Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Fellow, recommends that law schools turn it into a learning opportunity "to better prepare law students and to make them more attentive to ethical concerns." By teaching students more about billing, such as the importance of careful time-keeping and ethical billing practices, they will learn valuable skills that may strengthen the lawyer-client relationship.

In a recent article, The Miami Herald takes a closer look into the University of Miami's new dual medical-legal degree program, set to launch this fall. This program is an expansion of Miami's Health and Elder Law Medical Legal Partnership, designed to cross-train medical and law students in each other’s disciplines. The program lessens the time and tuition required if each degree was pursued separately.

IAALS has just released a research report entitled Family Law in Focus: A Retrospective Study of Colorado's Early Experiments with Proactive Case Processing. This report presents the results from an analysis of data from five pilot programs in four different Colorado courts that implemented proactive case management in family law cases. The data show that by providing active case management, assistance, and education to litigants, the likelihood of speedier case resolution is increased, which is the intent of CRCP 16.2.

The Honoring Families Initiative is pleased to announce a new addition to our national Advisory Committee—Gabrielle Davis. Davis is a Legal & Policy Advisor with the Battered Women’s Justice Project. We are delighted to see the new perspectives and ideas that Davis will bring to the Honoring Families Advisory Committee.

Malia Reddick, Director of the Quality Judges Initiative at IAALS, was recently interviewed about the Minnesota Bar's judicial selection policy, which may or may not be retained this summer. Reddick says that Minnesota’s system is good, and could be even better by strengthening it against against the intrusion of politics, special interests, and money. A system that emphasizes a judge’s qualifications, rather than how much money a judge can raise to get elected or their personal positions on hot-button issues, creates a more stable, open, and impartial judiciary.

Socially conservative legislators in Alaska have proposed a bill that would remove the judicial council’s authority to make recommendations regarding judges standing for retention. In Tennessee, legislators have proposed a bill that would allow them to reconstitute the nine-member performance evaluation commission with no judge members. It would also authorize the commission to rewrite existing evaluative criteria and to prevent judges who receive a recommendation “for replacement” from standing for retention.