News & Updates

In the latest edition of Unified Family Court Connection, IAALS Honoring Families Initiative Advisory Committee members William J. Howe, III and Justice Paul J. DeMuniz highlight Oregon's efforts to better serve children and families dealing with divorce and conflict. Included in its efforts is an Informal Domestic Relations Trial that IAALS helped the Oregon State Family Law Advisory Committee develop. The authors also discuss the model for Resource Centers for Separating and Divorcing Families, which was developed by the Honoring Families Initiative.

Governor Perdue appointed eighteen members—both lawyers and non-lawyers—to the judicial nominating commission she created by executive order in April 2011. The commission will screen and recommend candidates for interim vacancies on the state’s appellate courts and major trial court.

Online dispute resolution is emerging in courts around the country. Last month, Arizona’s Administrative Office of the Courts announced the launch of an ODR pilot program in the family courts of Pinal County, and there are also startups providing similar services through intelligent dispute resolution.

As Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts celebrates its 25th year, supporters of moving from partisan elections to commission-based appointment of the state's appellate judges are optimistic that the time is finally right. That optimism stems largely from two recent scandals that have plagued the state supreme court. The reform legislation also enjoys support on both sides of the aisle.

The supreme court amended the code of judicial conduct to bar elected judges from hearing cases when a litigant, lawyer, or law firm involved in the case “has made contributions or given such support to the judge’s campaign that the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

The American legal profession is at a crossroads. We cannot continue to expect people to confront legal problems without legal advice. IAALS’ new Unlocking Legal Regulation project is taking a bold step forward and laying the foundation for a consumer- and people-centered legal regulatory system that opens the door for more service providers, more legal services, and more sustainable practices in the marketplace.

This year, we tried something new at the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference. During the reception, we opened the floor to four short presentations by participants who wanted to share an idea with our audience of legal educators, practitioners, and judges. It was, by all counts, a resounding success and we plan to expand it next year. They were a conference highlight and certainly worth six minutes.

Of the four candidates vying for a supreme court seat in the March Democratic primary, the incumbent and her appellate court challenger received the highest marks from Chicago-area bar associations that rate judges. The other two candidates were found “not qualified” and “not recommended” in various polls.

To address the challenges posed by the rising number of debt collection cases in our state courts—including high rates of self-represented litigants and default judgments—IAALS and the National Center for State Courts have released a new white paper that presents a model approach to reform in these cases.

While divorce is a legal process, anyone who has gone through it knows that it is also an emotional process. The reality is that the 'emotional divorce' and the 'legal divorce' most often have to be managed at the same time, but the legal process can make a significant difference in one's experience, both during the process and for years after.

In response to growing complaints from the public, a new accreditation system will require medical residency programs "to demonstrate that their trainees have the skills and personal attributes they need to be competent, empathetic doctors." The system will provide more detailed feedback and will focus on outcomes, rather than process.

Earlier this year, the National Center for State Courts published a set of recommendations for the redesign of the Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana. Many of the suggestions stem from the Family Justice Initiative—supported by IAALS and the NCSC—and its Principles for Family Justice Reform.

The "Plain Language Movement" has been afoot for many years in the United States, seeking to make legal documents accessible to a broad swath of intended readers. In Washington, the Pro Se Project was created to improve self-represented litigant’s access to the courts by improving pattern court forms. Twenty-four other states also have extensive plain language court forms for use in family law and other areas.

On March 14, Senate leaders agreed to move forward with confirmation votes for 14 judicial nominees who had earned unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The deal avoided the need for procedural votes to force confirmation votes through the Senate floor.  On March 15, the Senate overwhelming voted to confirm two federal district court judges.

After COVID-19 and the social unrest around racial equity, our world will never be the same. We have a duty to ensure that we learn from this season of change and to use the knowledge we have gained to create a better world. To do so, we must be guided by data and evidence—and we must improve our data and research practices.

A recent blog post, penned by former Judge Steven I. Platt, argues for implementing a short, summary, and expedited civil jury trial process in Maryland. There continues to be great interest in these programs, which generally involve a simplified pretrial process and a shortened, expedited trial, and multiple jurisdictions around the country are considering implementing them. As these programs continue to grow in popularity, we recommend several resources.

A Republican legislator called for an investigation into whether three supreme court justices violated state election law in using court employees to help file their retention candidacy paperwork. The justices learned on the day of the deadline that their financial disclosure forms were incomplete and called a court recess to finalize their submissions.

Last week, IAALS and our project partner HiiL cohosted a series of virtual Justice Data Lab meetings with our US Justice Needs Advisory Committee and a few additional partners. In August launched the individual survey of legal problems, receiving responses from 10,000 individuals from across the United States, and we are now analyzing the data.

Legal Aid Ontario, which promotes access to justice for low-income individuals, recently created programs that provide services to couples wishing to divorce as long as one individual makes less than $18,000 and the other does not make more than $50,000. If couples qualify, the program provides "a whole different avenue that people can now access to resolve their family law problems."

The senate voted unanimously to replace the existing judicial disciplinary body—the court on the judiciary—with a new entity known as the board of judicial conduct. The state bar and the supreme court would no longer have a role in selecting members of the disciplinary body, and greater transparency in its work would be required.