News & Updates

A recent article in The New York Times argues that divorced and never-married parents have, in a sense, lost their right to choose how they want to parent. While married parents get a level of discretion from the legal system, "[j]udges routinely decide where the children of divorced parents will attend school, worship and receive medical care." Why the difference in treatment between married parents and those who are divorcing or separating?

Last month, Suffolk University Law School, an Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Consortium school, hosted the first-ever "Hackcess to Justice" legal hackathon. The event was designed to bring together some of the best legal and technological minds to brainstorm and devise ways to improve access to justice using technology.

The outcome of governors' races in at least two states—Florida and Kansas—will have meaningful implications for those states' courts. Florida's next governor could have the opportunity to fill four of seven seats on the supreme court. In Kansas, the gubernatorial candidates have a fundamental area of disagreement involving how state supreme court justices should be chosen.

On Tuesday, September 16, the Judicial Conference of the United States forwarded the proposed rule amendments to the Supreme Court with the recommendation that they be adopted. The announcement recognized that these amendments represent “significant” proposals designed to promote the just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of civil cases. The Supreme Court has until May 1, 2015 to consider the amendments.

This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (September 18-20), I will be attending the 3rd Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference, which will focus on "Accelerating Competency: Assessment in Legal Education." I'll be keeping you updated throughout each day with live tweets on conference happenings and discussions taking place—so even if you can't join us, you can follow along online using hashtag #ETLConference.

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.

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.

The Colorado Supreme Court has extended the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP) for another six months, through June 30, 2015. The pilot project, which was originally schedule to run through December 31, 2013, had already been extended for an additional year to provide the court with more data and a detailed evaluation of the pilot. IAALS' evaluation of CAPP is now complete, and we will be releasing a final report in the coming weeks.

Over the last seven years, we have focused much of our time and effort on ways to improve the effectiveness of discovery, due in large part to the expanding world of electronically stored information. In our new report, we review the laws in the United States and other countries and provide examples of, and analogies to, various cost allocation models. One of the key takeaways is the importance of proportionality.

IAALS would like to congratulate Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Steve Leben on being named the 2014 recipient of the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. The National Center for State Courts Rehnquist award is presented annually to a state court judge who embodies judicial excellence, integrity, fairness, and professional ethics. Judge Leben is a close friend of IAALS, and his impact has been felt across much of our work.

Chad G. Asarch recently wrote an article discussing the Real Estate Transactions course he teaches, which emphasizes practical legal skills in a non-clinical, traditional classroom setting. In contemplating the structure of the course, Asarch analyzed the actual work practicing lawyers undertake in representing a client in a real estate transaction, and class assignments were designed to make students perform these tasks.

There have been a few new resources made available for separating or divorcing families in the United Kingdom, including a website that provides information for families, a collection of legal expertise and advice in legal areas, and a guide for parents who wish to separate cooperatively.

One year ago, the Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families opened its doors at the University of Denver to serve families in metro area. Based on an interdisciplinary out-of-court model developed by the Honoring Families Initiative, the RCSDF is operating at full-force today, helping numerous parents transition in a positive and constructive manner that better serves them and their children.

In May, we launched Foundations for Practice, an ambitious project that will study the foundations entry-level lawyers need to launch successful careers, identify models of legal education to get us there, and develop hiring tools to help employers better match their needs with their hiring practices. This summer we also added a new member to the ETL team. Kevin Keyes is joining us as a Project Manager, working with us and our many partners on the first phase of the project.

The latest round of proposed amendments published for comment appear to be just housekeeping measures, and therefore are not nearly as significant as the proposed amendments that were published for comment last August. These newest proposals include a clarifying amendment to Rule 4, removal of service by electronic means from the types of service for which three additional days are added to the time period under Rule 6, and a housekeeping amendment to Rule 82.

We are pleased to announce the release of a new report on the judicial nominating commissions used to select supreme court justices in 30 states and Washington, D.C. With Choosing Judges, we examine why judicial nominating commissions are established in the first place, how their structure and operation differ across the nation, and what some of the best practices might be in building public trust in the process.

New Mexico judges are chosen through a process that is truly unique. Since 1988, judicial vacancies have been filled by commission-based appointment. Appointees then face a partisan election to keep their seats. At the conclusion of their terms, judges stand for retention for subsequent terms. This year, five judges waited until after the filing deadline to announce their retirement, exemplifying what some see as an increasing trend by judges and party leaders to try to influence judicial selections.

Law Week Colorado recently published an article detailing the launch of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers' Foundations for Practice project. The goal of the project is to give law schools more information about the skills, competencies, characteristics, and traits—referred to as "foundations"—that real-world practitioners say graduates need to be successful. Once these foundations are identified, law schools can then incorporate them more fully.

In a recent opinion issuing discovery sanctions, a federal district court judge in the Northern District of Iowa denounced modern discovery practice in the United States. Judge Mark W. Bennett began the opinion with a reference to Hamlet, and then went on to discuss the current state of discovery, how it is too often “mired in obstructionism,” and how such inappropriate conduct is “born of a warped view of zealous advocacy.”

Professor and ETL Fellow John Lande of the University of Missouri School of Law has helped bring together a new collection of resources for law school professors who teach Alternative Dispute Resolution or who use ADR simulations in their classes. The website is intended to be a place where professors can learn about multi-stage simulations while sharing their own ideas and experiences using them.