News & Updates

Conservative groups have mounted a loosely organized effort to oppose the retention of Justice John Pelander because of his vote in a 3-2 ruling that allows Proposition 121 to appear on the November ballot.

According to a recent poll, 43 percent of Iowans would vote “no” on Justice David Wiggins’ retention, while 37 percent would vote “yes.”

A former governor and a former supreme court justice oppose a measure on the November ballot that would give the legislature the same authority as the supreme court to make rules governing the administration of all state courts.

IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis was recently profiled in this month's issue of The Colorado Lawyer. The article, written by Justice Mary Mullarkey, discusses the rise of women to the judicial bench and focuses on the three female justices who have completed their terms on the Colorado Supreme Court.

In their September issue, Law Week Colorado discusses the problems with the current civil justice system and the on-going efforts by states to facilitate “just, speedy and inexpensive” litigation. Referencing dialogue from IAALS’ Third Civil Justice Reform Summit, the article describes the states' implementation of civil procedure pilot projects, intended to improve state systems by limiting discovery proportionally to what is needed.

IAALS alum and panelist at IAALS’ Third Civil Justice Reform Summit Professor Jordan Singer, of New England Law│Boston, recently shared his reactions to the Summit at PrawfsBlawg. In addition to putting the Summit into context and providing a summary of the different state and federal pilot projects around the country, Professor Singer also urges courts and researchers to share raw data on reform efforts.

In an article for The New York Law Journal, ETL Advisory Committee Member Luke Bierman advocates for experimentation and innovation in law school curriculum. Bierman argues that law schools must rethink their curriculum and missions to combat the perceived gap between modern legal education and practice, which has only been heightened by the employment challenges recent law school graduates have been facing.

For her third appointment to the five-member supreme court, Governor Brewer selected court of appeals judge Ann Scott Timmer, a Republican. Prior to this appointment, thirty-five of the 38 judges she had appointed since taking office in 2009 were Republicans.

The judicial performance evaluation commission recommended retention of three appellate judges standing for retention in November, though one judge scored lower than his colleagues on timeliness of rulings and handling his ongoing workload.

Justice Stephen David has opted to actively campaign for his retention, in response to a Tea Party-based challenge based on his vote in a 2011 case. According to David's campaign website, judges "don't have the luxury of taking a poll to find out which way they should rule on thorny issues" but must rule based on the facts and the law.

According to campaign finance filings, the group formed to support the retention of three justices on the November ballot--Defend Justice from Politics--has raised and spent $1.45 million. The justices themselves have raised $1.36 million.

There is speculation that the GOP will return the state to partisan judicial elections if Republicans win control of the legislative and executive branches in November. The legislature made appellate court elections nonpartisan in 2004, but all eight appellate court candidates have clear partisan affiliations.

With less than a month until the November elections, a federal judge struck down the state’s limits on campaign contributions, finding that existing limits prevent candidates from mounting effective campaigns. The case was brought by conservative activists, corporations, and Republican groups.

Both gubernatorial candidates oppose Amendment 3, a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow governors to appoint a majority of the members of the appellate judicial commission and give governors four nominees, rather than three, to choose from in appointing appellate judges.

A pro-business group known as the Montana Growth Network funded a radio ad attacking a supreme court candidate’s position on the death penalty. The candidate asked his opponent to denounce the ad, as the code of judicial conduct recommends when third parties make false statements about candidates, but she responded that she would need to do extensive research to determine the ad’s factuality.

The state chamber plans to publicize its recently completed ratings of supreme court justices standing for retention, based on their rulings in business cases.

Challengers to two incumbent supreme court justices questioned their campaign financing practices. One of the challengers promised to recuse himself from cases involving contributors, while the other has raised no money.

In 2006, IAALS opened its doors in a small adjunct office on campus at the University of Denver. With little more than a folding table and chairs, we embarked on a journey to improve the civil justice system. Today, we are a vibrant, national research center, and more committed than ever to continuous improvement of the civil justice system. That is why we decided to launch IAALS Online. We believe it will allow us to harness the power of national conversations to identify and improve solutions for a stronger system.

Dean John T. Broderick, Jr., is the Dean of the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Previously, he was Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court since 2004. Prior to his installation as Chief Justice, he had served as an Associate Justice since 1995. As we launch IAALS Online, he joins three other former Chief Justices in the conversation about IAALS and its initiatives by discussing the work of our Rule One Initiative. "The civil justice system is in danger of becoming irrelevant – both to you and to me as citizens, and even to corporations and other business entities. None of us can afford it. It costs too much, takes too long, and is too uncertain."

Justice Paul J. De Muniz was elected to the Oregon Supreme Court in 2000 and served as the court's Chief Justice and administrative head of the Oregon Judicial Department from January 2006 to May 2012. As we launch IAALS Online, he joins three other former Chief Justices in the conversation about IAALS and its initiatives by discussing the work of our Honoring Families Initiative. "Like with other parts of our court systems, now is the time to ask hard questions about the structure, operation, tradition, and culture of our family courts. We could begin by asking whether our traditional adversarial model actually meets the needs of divorcing and separating families. Is it not time to reengineer our family courts in ways that are less adversarial, that encourage continued parental involvement with their children, and that provide for alternative forums and processes outside the court system for resolving parenting issues in a more consensual manner?"