Publications

In collaboration with a political and communications consultant, IAALS identified a range of strategies for communicating Judicial Performance Evaluation results to voters, including coalition building, messaging platforms, and social media.

To assist Judicial Nominating Commissions in performing their crucial role, IAALS developed this Model Code to identify and clarify the ethical obligations that members of judicial nominating commissions have, addressing such considerations as potential conflicts of interest, the extent of commission members’ political activity, their ex parte communications, and the confidentiality of the commission’s work.

The research on culture change, and legal culture in particular, suggests that culture change for the legal system is an uphill battle. While we have a clear challenge ahead, that does not mean that it is impossible. We propose ten cultural shifts for the purpose of promoting that national dialogue.

In this article for the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, IAALS highlights the critical next step needed beyond rule changes: culture change. Judges and attorneys alike have a responsibility to ensure that the system functions well, for the sake of clients, courts, and the profession. This article outlines those responsibilities and ways to achieve that goal.

This guide was compiled by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), in coordination with IAALS, and is designed for parents seeking affordable legal assistance in family separation cases.

This toolkit was compiled by IAALS, in coordination with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and is designed to provide judicial leaders quick access to information on unbundled legal services and ways to promote its availability and use.

This guide was compiled by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), in coordination with IAALS, and is designed to give non-legal professionals information about the benefits of unbundled legal services and alternative processes that families can take.

This guide was compiled by IAALS, in coordination with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and amasses helpful resources into an easily accessible Frequently Asked Questions format, centered on the fundamentals of unbundled legal services.

This unique resource that shines a light on each state and its specific methods for selecting and retaining judges. Only available from IAALS, these easy-to-read charts break down how judges reach the bench, and how they stay there, across all three court levels.

Since 2007, IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice have partnered to study cost and delay in America’s civil justice system, and propose solutions. The report is a re-evaluation of their original proposed Principles in light of the pilot project and rule reform experiences around the country, and includes 24 new proposed Principles to guide future innovation.

IAALS conducted an evaluation of the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program at the University of New Hampshire School of Law to analyze the program's outcomes. The program is a collaboration between the law school, the state supreme court, and the state board of bar examiners, and provides a combination of experiential training and ongoing assessment.

Family court judges make significant decisions affecting our nation's families, yet these judges are often undervalued—even by their peers on the bench. And, there is insufficient acknowledgement of the broad expertise required to do the job well. This publication aims to change this by drawing attention to the special knowledge, qualities, and skills that these judges need to be successful.

This report details IAALS' final findings on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP), the state's experiment with new court procedures intended to secure the fundamental promise of our civil justice system: a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.

Understanding how the courts and rulemakers have addressed the costs of discovery, including their allocation between the parties, provides important background and context for future recommendations. This report reviews the laws in the United States and other countries and provides examples of, and analogies to, various cost allocation models.

This report details the judicial nominating commissions used to select supreme court justices in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The report examines 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.

IAALS has a deep and abiding interest in protecting the quality and integrity of the judiciary. With the assistance of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and based upon IAALS’ independent research and compilation of existing research, IAALS and Justice O’Connor have identified a model for judicial selection that we believe best balances the dual goals of impartiality and accountability.

This publication answers many common questions about the court systems and judges in the United States, such as why we have both state and federal courts and how the differ, ​what types of state courts there are, how a state judge reaches the bench, and what qualifications state judges have.

In 2011, the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers initiative at IAALS conducted a survey, gathering data about new programs from 118 law schools. The survey intended to determine whether external factors were catalysts for institutional changes or whether schools acted following the Carnegie Report. This publication contains IAALS blog posts spanning four years, addressing the results and impact of the survey.

This publication provides a synthesis of the relevant empirical research on the civil justice process released from 2008 to 2013. In addition to IAALS research, it contains studies conducted by a variety of organizations and individuals, including the Federal Judicial Center, the National Center for State Courts, the RAND Corporation, and others.

IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice submitted comments on the proposed Federal Rule Amendments. The comment provides a summary of the pilot project and rules reform activity around the country, at both the state and federal level, as much of this activity parallels the current proposed amendments.