News & Updates

In response to the “enormous pressure” and polarization weighing on the American political landscape, the Brennan Center for Justice has launched the National Task Force on the Rule of Law and Democracy. One of the co-chairs of the Task Force is IAALS O’Connor Advisory Committee Member and former Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman. She is joined in leadership by co-chair and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

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.

There are fourteen trial court seats up for election in Manhattan, but candidates are all running unopposed. The five supreme court candidates were nominated at a party convention. Of the nine civil court candidates, only one faced an opponent in the primary.

Alternative dispute resolution processes, especially in the area of family law, are finally starting to become more common—yet still not common enough. IAALS piloted the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce (COCD) in Denver, and other programs, like the Hampshire Family Resolutions Specialty Court in Massachusetts, are also taking shape across the country.

A one-day divorce program that launched this spring in the Sacramento Superior Court is streamlining the process for self-represented litigants who have filed a dissolution of marriage case before the Court and are ready for a final judgment. According to the court, law students are playing “a vital role” in the success of the program, meeting with litigants and gathering intake data; the program is also benefiting from the assistance of volunteer attorneys who serve as Judges Pro Tem.

Of the 100 justices who have served on the supreme court since statehood, only 36 have been elected to their seats. The rest were appointed by the governor to fill mid-term vacancies. But with two open-seat races in 2012, the court will have a majority of elected justices for the first time since 1913.

The road to recovery is arduous for disaster victims. For the increasing numbers of those victims who end up in court in an effort to recover damages, the process can be protracted and complex. Courts are quickly overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of the cases and these challenges quickly frustrate victims already struggling to rebuild. But even with a documented upswing in both the number and severity of natural disasters, it doesn’t have to be this way.

On September 17, 2013, IAALS and the Byron R. White Center are bringing United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (ret.) to Colorado to deliver the 3rd Annual John Paul Stevens Lecture. The Stevens Lecture brings a well-known jurist to the University of Colorado Law School each year. Registration for the lecture is now open, and can be accessed online.

Change in legal education is necessary, but it will require the effort of schools, professors, students, media, and the public: The problems facing the legal profession are huge, but not insurmountable. The question is whether more law schools and professors are able to leave their comfort zones, law students are able to think more globally and long term, and the popular press and public are willing to credit those who are already moving in the right direction.

As we move into the New Year, everyone at IAALS is excited to be taking on new projects, creating new relationships, and continuing the important work that moves us toward a more accessible and efficient justice system. To help us pursue that goal, we are welcoming Brooke Meyer to our team, who will serve as a manager, working across our state and federal civil-focused projects.

The new Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families at the University of Denver is open for business. Media buzz around the first-of-its-kind Center, based on the model developed by IAALS, continues to grow. Listen to the interview with Rebecca Love Kourlis and Melinda Taylor.

In its celebration of 2011 "Lawyers of the Year," LawWeek Colorado named Denver District Court Judge Ann Frick and Sherman & Howard lawyer Skip Netzorg for their roles in creating the rules for the Civil Access Pilot Project.

IAALS is pleased to announce that Kelsey Montague has joined the organization as its new Associate Director of Marketing and Public Relations. Kelsey has spent her career developing robust marketing and media campaigns and social media strategies to help raise awareness and foster impact.

This short update on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project evaluation provides information on the specifics and timing of the evaluation that IAALS is conducting in Colorado. We hope this information will provide some reassurance to the Colorado legal community on what to expect in the coming year, while also providing some insight into other evaluation processes that are going on around the country.

U.S. Senator and possible 2015 gubernatorial candidate David Vitter urged the state legislature to examine the current process for choosing judges—i.e., partisan elections—and consider moving to merit selection.

IAALS is excited to announce the creation of a new Advisory Committee in support of its US Justice Needs project, which is conducting research to assess the justice needs of people and businesses in the United States. The Advisory Committee will inform the work of the project, including assisting in tailoring HiiL’s individual survey for administration in the United States and developing a survey for businesses.

Jurors have a unique perspective on our legal system. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with someone who served on a jury this fall in California Superior Court. He had some suggestions as to how things could have been handled differently. We at IAALS hope judges and attorneys are listening. These techniques are already in use in many courtrooms across the country—but not all.

The House of Delegates gathering at the American Bar Association's Midyear Meeting in New Orleans covered court funding, civics education, attacks on judges who make unpopular decisions, and other challenges in the system and the profession.

Imagine a legal sector neatly divided into two groups: the Rule Makers and the Risk Takers. With evidence piling up that the legal market is not working for ordinary citizens, the Rule Makers come together to evaluate possible changes. After the new rules are enacted, the burden shifts to the Risk Takers to build out workable solutions.

Professor Roberto Corrada of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law gives students a comprehensive understanding of administrative law through a unique, simulated experience inspired by the novel Jurassic Park. The course, Administrative Law: Dinosaur Park Simulation, is taught using the paradigm of “what if this actually happened.”