News & Updates

On August 7, three Tennessee Supreme Court justices withstood a well-funded challenge to their retention on the bench for subsequent terms. Tennesseans are now looking ahead to November 4, when voters will decide whether to adopt a modified federal selection process for the state's appellate judges. Voters in four other states will also weigh in on proposed constitutional amendments affecting judicial selection and tenure.

In November, voters will decide whether to make changes to the composition of the appellate judicial commission, which screens and nominates potential appointees for the supreme court and court of appeals.

September is National Preparedness Month, and with natural disasters increasing in severity—and with COVID-19 still wreaking havoc worldwide—it is important for courts to consider ways to mitigate the negative effects. Fortunately, IAALS' Pandemic Protocols and Disaster Protocols provide many of the tools they need.

Idaho has released a report evaluating its Informal Custody Trial (ICT) program. The ICT allows litigants in child custody cases to suspend the rules of evidence and the normal question-and-answer format of trial, waive the rules of discovery, and directly present their case, issues, and concerns to the court. The report had many encouraging statistics, but more evaluation may be needed to determine whether the program is successfully helping families.

As part of the Atlantic's "America the Fixable" series, IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis laid out the challenges currently facing the civil justice system—and a five-step plan to address them.

This week, IAALS Interim CEO Brittany Kauffman and Director of Research Logan Cornett will attend the World Justice Forum, discussing US Justice Needs and the importance of people-centered data when creating and implementing justice reforms.

Divorce can put families through a long and difficult process of litigation—but does it have to? At its core, the collaborative divorce process occurs outside of court and seeks to resolve issues in a more respectful and dignified setting. According to a recent article, an increasing number of divorcing spouses are turning to this option, and the ABA Journal recently profiled IAALS' out-of-court approach.

Professor Michael Madison’s “goal is to inspire students to learn, and to have the confidence to learn, long after they have left [his] classroom.” He adopts a “writing to learn” pedagogy in his copyright course as practice leads to effective learning.

Design Your Law Practice: Using Design Thinking to Get Next Level Results is a one-stop resource for law firm owners to learn the basics of design thinking and prepare them to immediately apply these approaches to their own practices.

Last week, IAALS honored the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice at the 8th Annual Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner in downtown Denver. With profound gratitude, we recognized the dedication of the Task…

State supreme court campaigns have set national fundraising and spending records in recent years, but this year’s races are relatively inexpensive with candidates raising just over $1 million to date.

The IAALS Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award recognizes innovators who have made significant impacts early in their legal careers toward making the American legal system work better for everyone. The nomination window for the 2024 award is now open.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado has published new Guidelines Addressing the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information and a Checklist for Rule 26(f) Meet-and-Confer Regarding Electronically Stored Information. The guidelines and checklist were developed by a well-balanced committee following a survey of practitioners in the District.

The Akron Bar Association formed a judicial campaign conduct committee as part of an effort to improve the tone and conduct of local judicial campaigns. The committee will ask candidates to sign a clean-campaign pledge and will review complaints about improper campaign behavior. The committee consists of five Democrats, five Republicans, and an independent and includes eight lawyers and three non-lawyers.

The world at large is constantly evolving, and so must our civil justice system. In on 2023 Annual Report, read how our work centers the people and how our solutions cascade from IAALS to the millions who benefit nationwide.

The New York Times is running a series of articles on consumer-business arbitration. The writers observe that arbitration takes away transparency, due process, the right of appeal, and assurance of an impartial decision maker—all of the attributes of a court system. In exchange, it offers a speedier, cheaper process.

On August 30th, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania introduced a new Pilot Program designed to expedite civil cases filed in that district. Modeled loosely on the Northern District of California's program, the Pennsylvania District's Pilot Program is aimed at relatively simple civil cases, which do not require lengthy and expensive pretrial and trial proceedings.

Robert Southers discusses what drives his passion for access to justice, building trust with the community, and what it means to receive the Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award.

At the beginning of this month, the long awaited amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. Of the amendments, the one that changed the most following the public comment period was Rule 37(e), which was substantially revised…

Over the last year, the percentage of women serving on the state’s courts has risen from 36.1 percent to 38.2 percent. Nationwide, women hold 27.5 percent of state court judgeships.