Foundations: Hiring Guide

Publication
This guide is for employers who want to improve their hiring practices—to improve quality, retention, and diversity—based on what IAALS has learned from the Foundations for Practice project. To make the most of this resource, employers should use… MORE

Foundations: Instructional Design Guide

Publication
This instructional design guide is for educators who are interested in using what IAALS has learned from the Foundations for Practice project as a basis for learning outcomes and standards-based assessments. The guide uses a step-by-step approach… MORE

Initial Discovery Protocols

Publication
These Initial Discovery Protocols for Business Interruption Insurance Disputes Arising from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Similar Public Health Threats (Pandemic Protocols) provide a new pretrial procedure that aims to reduce conflict and cost and to… MORE

Pandemic Positives

Publication
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home orders, layoffs, closures, and social distancing have upended every aspect of our society, including our justice system. Courts and legal service providers had to quickly develop new processes for… MORE

Building a Better Bar

Publication
The legal profession has never had a clear, explicit understanding of the minimum competence needed to practice law and how it should be tested on the bar exam (or through other licensing approaches). In this report from our Building a Better Bar… MORE

Public Perspectives on Trust and Confidence in the Courts

Publication
Researchers have frequently studied public trust and confidence in the legal system, with a large body of survey and public polling data highlighting issues like perceived racial and gender bias, socioeconomic bias, and concerns over the role of… MORE

Transforming Our Civil Justice System for the 21st Century: The Road to Civil Justice Reform

Publication
In July 2016, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) endorsed 13 recommendations for improving the American civil justice system. The report and recommendations, titled Call to Action:… MORE

Preventing Whack-a-Mole Management of Consumer Debt Cases

Publication
Americans are drowning in debt, with an estimated $4 trillion or roughly $13,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States—large numbers of whom struggle to repay their debts, especially debts incurred to cover routine living expenses,… MORE

Redesigning Divorce

Publication
Through our Court Compass project, IAALS has been rethinking legal processes by listening to and engaging the people who actually use the system. In four states across the country, we brought self-represented litigants and other legal system… MORE

Guidance on Developing Problem-Solving Approaches for Families in Court

Publication
Family courts operate within a larger court structure that generally reflects the traditional, adversarial approach, which can exacerbate existing tensions between partners or spouses, and, in cases involving children, can leave children caught in… MORE